Yes, I often tell you that...

Divine Message Published on Radiosai website

yes I often tell you that

you dont need to earn Me, you only need to yearn for Me

but let Me tell you that

neither can you have Me without yearning for Me

nor can you even have Me by mere intense yearning

yes I often tell you

the way to Me is through Japa and Dhyana

but let Me tell you that

neither can you think of Me without japa and dhyana

nor can you reach me even with your akhanda japa culminating in samadhi

yes I do tell you often that

you can access Me by punya karma or service to fellow beings

but let Me tell you that

though you can indeed not reach me without shreyo karma

but you can not reach me even with all the punyas you earn in a million lifetimes

yes I do tell you that

your good fortune in being born as a human is far greater than even the devas

but let Me tell you that

though one can never reach Me without passing through human body

yet one can never ever reach Me with the raiment of this human body and its dasendryas

yes I do tell you that I am attainable only by viveka jnana

but let Me tell you that

though I am infinitely beyond the reach of maya material of antaha karana chatushtaya

i am even beyond the reach of fully awakened moola prakriti established in viveka jnana (the ultimate wisdom- saroopya))

you can reach Me only by my grace

now that you have accessed Me and know Me

know that you are

The Chosen One

and with the quick fix glue of

My Grace

You and I are inseparable.....

carry on with steady faith your spiritual discipline...

- Baba

Sai Speaks on Marriage -Part II

SWAMI SPEAKS ON MARRIAGE :

First you must understand each other.

After that adjustment will be easy.

First understanding. Second adjustment.

Ninety percent of the people try adjustment first.

This is the wrong way. First understanding.

·         Sometimes, it is natural for you to have anger, ego, temper, tension. You must have adjustment and understanding.

·         Life is like a ring. The ring is the heart; when that is given, the gift is the heart itself. That is the sacred bond.

·         Selflessness is God. The self which is selfless is God. To feel ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ is ego. Ego is very harmful. It is to kill the ego that two souls are brought together. They can learn to adjust to one another and forget their egos.

·         Marriage means your life, a whole lifetime together, not just a few days or a few weeks, or a few years.

·         Marriage is a training ground for fostering trans-sensual love.

·         Today people are not making any effort to understand this principle of love. It is only the power of love that can nullify a curse of a sin. It is only love that can remove all the bitter feelings and enhance the sweetness of life.

·         Today we find elaborate arrangements and gala celebrations in marriage functions. One is filled with joy when one gets married, but one does not realize that the happiness of married life is but momentary. This is not true happiness. O mind, tell me what gives the real happiness? It is Divine proximity.

·          It was lust that caused the downfall of Ravana, the one of great penance and the master of 64 types of knowledge. He not only ruined himself but his whole kingdom. Without purity of heart all the spiritual practices are of no use.

·         Love is life for man and love is everything in this world. It is love that shines brilliantly in every individual. But man, not being able to comprehend the significance of love attributes physical relationship to it. The love of a mother towards her child is affection. The love that exists between wife and husband is infatuation. The love that exists among friends and relations is attachment. The love towards material objects is desire. Love in totality, directed towards God is known as devotion.

·         There is nothing that love cannot achieve in this world. It can even melt the hardest of rocks. When the principle of love in every human being is unified it becomes cosmic love. Do you want to quench your thirst for love? Yearn for His grace and worship Him. In order to experience bliss, develop love more and more. The more you develop love, the more you will experience bliss. Bliss cannot be attained without love. In fact, it is love that takes the form of bliss.

·         Women should take the correct path, then men will also follow suit, as it is the women who have to take the leading role. The wife is half of the husband; if she becomes good, then her husband, who is the other half, will also become good. 

·         Women should inculcate qualities of compassion, love and sacrifice. There is no nobler quality than sacrifice.

·         Men do not have the same spirit of sacrifice as women. If any problem arises, men come forward with initial enthusiasm, but it is only women who resolutely fight until success is achieved.

·         The woman should be respected as the goddess of prosperity in the home. She is the companion of her husband in the fulfillment of the duties and rights of wedded life, and she is a partner in the pilgrimage toward God and Self-realization.

·         It does not matter, how bad or low the husband is, the wife must, through love, bring him round and correct him, and help him gain the blessings of the Lord.

·         She who knows the mind of the husband and speaks soft and sweetly is the real friend. Why sometimes, when the wife has to point out the path of Dharma to the husband, she takes on the role even of a Father! When the husband is down with illness she is the Mother.

·         The first title given to a woman is Grihalakshmi, the goddess of the home. A woman is expected to confer all prosperity, honor and good name on the home and the family. She is characterized as Goddess of the home and not Goddess of the Office....Grihalakshmi; not Office-lakshmi.

·         Another title for a woman is, ‘The better half’. This means she is the better half of the husband and not a partner in his job.

·         The third title is ‘Mistress of the Home’. She is the mistress in the house and not in the office.

·         Dharmapathni is the fourth title conferred on a married woman. This implies that the home is the dwelling for all righteousness. The home is the birth place of all the rules of right conduct.

·         Women should realize that, irrespective of their education or position, their foremost obligation is to protect the home.

·         For lakhs of students and children who go to school, the mother is the first teacher. From the moment of birth, for every one the mother is the preceptor. If such a teacher leaves her home to teach other children, who will teach her children?

·         Women are the fountain-source of love. Devotion is considered a feminine quality while wisdom is considered masculine. Let me not be misunderstood if I say that for the presence of all the male devotees present here, women alone are responsible. It is they who by their sacred feelings brought their menfolk here. Their work is sacred in every respect. They seek not only to sanctify their lives but the lives of all others in the family.

·         She who knows the mind of the husband and speaks softly and sweetly is the real friend. Why sometimes, when the wife has to point out the path of Dharma to the husband, she takes on the role even of a Father! When the husband is down with illness she is the Mother.

·         Husband entered your life in the middle and will go away in the middle. You may serve him as long as he is alive. But, when he himself discards you, there is nothing wrong in leaving him for the sake of God. It is not proper to expect the wife to suffer at the hands of a wicked husband.

·         Before Marriage, he is half body. Before marriage, she is half body. Lady is always left side. Right side is gent’s. The gent’s body is always the right side of the wife. Now you have only one body. In Indian philosophy or custom this is called ardhangi. (Ardha means half.) Wife before marriage is only ardhangi, half body. Now the left side is joined with the right side and you are full body.

·         In the future, husband’s troubles are wife’s troubles and wife’s troubles become husband’s. It is like, if one part of the body is paralyzed, the other part of the body feels the paralysis. And so, your wife must feel your pains and you must feel her pains. Both of your pains are removed by Swami. Both of you have Swami. Both husband should help wife and wife should help husband.

·         Today, there is the tendency of separation, not coming together. Life is full of troubles and challenges. We should not separate ourselves because of these but rather face them together. Now when trouble comes, even if it is small, it separates us. That should not be the tendency, one should give one’s heart to another.

·          Let men and women consider others’ mistakes to be small, however big they may be. Consider your own faults to be big, however small they may be. It is of utmost importance that you see the flaws in yourself, and eliminate them.

·         Men should try to understand women, and women should also try to understand men. It is the harmony, peace and mutual love between men and women that brings happiness and peace to the family. People want happiness in the family, but they do not lead exemplary live. The fault lies with both the husband and the wife.

·         Men do not have the same spirit of sacrifice as women. If any problem arises, men come forward with initial enthusiasm, but it is only women who resolutely fight until success is achieved.

·         Nowadays, people feel proud when they win titles for their outstanding contributions in the fields of art, science, and public life. These titles are insignificant. However, women hold titles which are permanent in nature. A house without a woman is like a jungle. So, men have a responsibility to give the respect and honor that women deserve and insure that they do not shed tears. The home where the woman sheds tears is bound to go to ruin

.

·         Men set no limits or restraints on themselves. They do not care to ponder over where they should go, why they should go there, nor how they should behave. The women do not know when to talk, what they should say, nor when to maintain silence. Therefore, if men and women correct these habits, then there can be happiness.

·         It does not matter, how bad or low the husband is, the wife must, through love, bring him round and correct him, and help him gain the blessings of the Lord.

·         That home, where the husband and the wife are abound together by holy love, where every day both are engaged in the reading of books that feed the soul, where the Name of the Lord is sung and His Glory remembered, that home is really the Home of the Lord.

·         Just as women should consider one person and one person only as her husband, man too has to be faithful to one woman and one woman only, as his mate, his wife.

Swami Speaks on Marriage

Marriage means your whole life, a whole lifetime together, not just a few days, or a few weeks, or a few years. (Golden Age, pp. 140-143)

Marriage should be a life-long partnership

"The antecedents of families were fully examined in tho past before marital alliances were concluded. But today these factors are ignored. People are indifferent to family backgrounds, while they are concerned about the pedigrees of dogs in dog shows! This indifference to lineage accounts for the breakup of many marriages after a short time. This should not happen. Marriage should be a life-long partnership." Sanathana Sarathi Jan 1996 P 14.

Marriage means your life, a whole lifetime together

"Before one is married, one does not know anything about the attitudes of one's own wife. Prior to the marriage, whatever difficulty the girl may come across, the husband is not going to worry about it. But once the marriage is performed, even if the wife has a small pain or difficulty, the husband also suffers great sorrow. The truth becomes clear from this example that these sorrows and difficulties come half-way in our life, and they are not natural to us."

"Marriage is like milk and sugar. Men are the milk; ladies are the sugar. ... Milk by itself is just protein. Sugar alone is just taste. They must be mixed together to give both taste and protein.

"In the Hindu culture, the wife is called half of the husband ... Marriage is a sacred bond and it is a promise you are making to each other because the wife is half husband and the husband is half of the wife. Half plus half is not two but one.

"Selflessness is God. The self which is selfless is God. To feel 'mine' and 'thine' is ego. Ego is very harmful. It is to kill the ego that two souls are brought together. They can learn to adiust to one another and forget their egos.

"Marriage means your life, a whole lifetime together, not just a few days or a few weeks, or a few years ... Marriage is a training ground for fostering transensual love.

"Life is like a ring. The ring is the heart; when that is given, the gift is the heart itself. That is the sacred bond.

"Today there is the tendency of separation, not coming together. Life is full of troubles and challenges. We should not separate ourselves because of these but rather face them together. Now when trouble comes, even if it is small, it separates us. That should not be the tendency, one should give one's heart to another." Golden Age pp 140-143

First Understanding, then Adjustment

Marriage is the joining together or bringing together of a man and a woman for the sake of progeny. People should exercise discipline and control in married life. That is why it is said there can be no glory or achievement without discipline. Before marriage, he is half body. Before marriage, she is half body. Lady is always left side. Right side is gent's. The gent's body is always the right side of the wife. Now you have only one body. In Indian philosophy or custom this is called ardhangi. (Ardha means half). Wife before marriage is only ardhangi, half body. Now the left side is joined with the right side and you are full body.

"In the future, husband's troubles are wife's troubles and wife's troubles become the husband's. It is like, if one part of the body is paralyzed, the other part of the body feels the paralysis. And so, your wife must feel your pains and you must feel her pains. Both of your pains are removed by Swami. Both husband should help wife and wife should help husband.

"Sometimes, it is natural for you to have adjustment and understanding. First you must understand each other. After that, adjustment will be easy. First understanding. Second adjustment. Ninety percent of people try adjustment first. This is wrong way around. First understanding." Vision of Sai, pp 129-130.

TO BE CONTINUED……..WITH MORE MESSAGES AND DISCOURSES BY SWAMI…………

History Of Vibhuti

Vibhuti today, has become the Mahaprasadam (gracious gift given to all devotees as a token of blessings from the Master) in any gathering - local or international - which takes place in the name of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. 
 

Getting to Know The Vibhuti ‘HIS’tory

Ever since the erection of the Prasanthi Nilayam ashram, the crowds that gathered in Puttaparthi only kept increasing. Puttaparthi became a pilgrimage centre for people of all religions and regions of the world. It was only apt that something as universal as ash became thePrasad that the devotees sought in this Universal abode of Supreme Peace. The 'lucky ones' got vibhutimaterialized with the divine wave of the palm. But everyone wanted a pinch of the holy ash for themselves and also some to carry back home as a token of Baba’s blessings. That was when Swami personally instituted a procedure for the ‘manufacture’ of vibhuti. 
 

Legend goes that Swami Himself gathered and cleaned cow-dung, had it dried and burnt to ashes. These ashes were sieved and finely powdered to result in the first edition of the vibhuti from Puttaparthi. One small paper packet of this ash was available for any visitor to the ashram to seek before leaving for his or her hometown. It was some time in the 1980s that Mr. Khialdas, the person entrusted with taking care of the co-operative general stores for the welfare of devotees, approached Swami with a request. He told Swami that devotees were wanting to take away huge quantities of vibhuti to their respective countries and hometowns. There was no way that the little vibhuti being 'manufactured' would suffice to fulfil even part of the demand. He thus sought Swami’s blessings for setting up an elaborate vibhuti manufacturing system after which the same could be sold at a very low cost. The time had arrived for the Sai mission of Love to change gears and Bhagawan Baba graciously permitted the venture.

(Mr. Khialdas has been a wonderful instrument in Swami’s hands and though he has not written or spoken of his experiences, his name finds mentions in memoirs of several devotees. One lovely story is presented by Mr. B.V. Ramana Rao as an article entitled, “Among thousands of devotees” in the December 2012 issue of the Sanathana Sarathi. )

A little detour to explain the twofold purpose of this article is relevant here. There is a mistaken notion among many that all the vibhuti that they purchase in the ashram (at Rs 2/- per 100gms-packet) has been 'materialized' by Swami and stored in huge chamber for distribution via such packets. Of course, the vibhuti has been 'created' by Swami in the same sense that the Universe has been created by Him; you and me have been created by Him. But just as the Big Bang was the Lord’s instrument of Universe-creation and the parents are His instruments for getting us into the world, there is an instrumental-process that pours forth the Divine vibhuti too. 
 

The first purpose of the article is to educate the reader about the know-how and details of this process. The second purpose is to elaborately answer the question - 'now-how' is the vibhuti made? 

Ever since Swami agreed to the manufacture and sale of vibhuti in 1986, the raw ash has been procured from a manufacturer and supplier in Palani,  Tamil Nadu. This raw vibhuti is constituted majorly from husk-ash with trace quantities of cow dung-ash (less than 1%). This ash arrives to Prasanthi Nilayam, packed in 50kg bags. The labour of love then begins wherein four different perfumes are mixed into the vibhuti in proportions gifted by Swami to a certain lady, Bujamma by name.

Two solid perfumes and two liquid perfumes were selected from among dozens brought to Swami by Khialdas. Swami called Bujamma and instructed her to mix a few tablespoons each of the liquid perfumes and a few tablespoons each of the solid perfumes into 40 bags of unscented vibhuti that arrived from Palani. (The exact measures are withheld. The exact formulation is a secret that is as guarded as the famous ‘Coke formula’. The formulation is transferred only by word of mouth and is not written down anywhere.) That makes a total of a few grams of perfume into 2000 kgs of vibhuti. The phrase ‘a few grams’ is correct because even today, the same spoons are used to add the perfumes. Electronic balances are not used for the proportion!

Bujiamma was entrusted with the sacred duty of mixing the perfumes into the vibhuti in the prescribed proportion. With the help of a few male workers, she would sincerely and conscientiously go about her daily sadhana of ‘creating’ vibhuti. The mixing needed to be thorough and that would itself take several hours. Once mixing was complete, the arduous task of packing had to be completed before the vibhuti packets were ready for the devotees.

One day, Bujiamma was told by Khialdas and several others that the vibhuti was not fragrant enough. Could she add a little extra perfume? As she mulled over this suggestion, her Lord visited her in a dream. There, He strictly warned her against increasing the given proportion. On the other hand, He told her to actually reduce the solid perfume to just half of the original prescription for the 40 bags of vibhuti. The divinely commanded change was incorporated and the proportions have remained the same ever since. 
 

The ‘Now-How’ of The Vibhuti-Making Process
 

Curious to know more about the ‘Swami-approved’ and ‘Swami-gifted’ method of vibhuti manufacture, I wended my way to the massive shopping complex of the Sri Sathya Sai Bhakta Sahayak Sangh in Prasanthi Nilayam. In a corner of the ground floor were huge trays stacked with 100-gm packets of the holy ash. I approached Mr. Doraiswamy, who is taking care of the vibhuti-manufacture in Prasanthi Nilayam. The details that he shared with me were mind-blowing.

Can you make a guesstimate of the amount of vibhuti that is disbursed in a year from Prasanthi Nilayam? Really, stop reading now, close your eyes and make a rough estimate. When I did this, I thought that the stores might possibly be selling about 5,000 kilograms of vibhuti a year. The actual number left me dumbfounded. On an average, about 100 metric tonnes of vibhuti is disbursed every year - a solid 100,000 kilograms! In fact, in 2010, this figure was a whopping 128 metric tonnes! And this entire amount is completely prepared by voluntary staff which averages 20 women!

That naturally spurred me the desire to visit the shed which is currently being used as the site for this manufacture. Even as I neared the shed behind the accommodation blocks on the North side of the ashram, the fragrance of the holy ash wafted into my being. I felt so surcharged. Entering the shed, I saw that there were about 15-20 women, silently and efficiently going about their task of packing the vibhuti. One or two of them raised their heads to see who was the newcomer silhouetted at the door. The others did not even notice my presence. I pulled out my camera and flashed aloud my entry. Now, a few of them looked at me and I asked aloud,

“Can I speak to Sanku Ramaniyamma?”

“I am here”, said a lady in her early fifties, sealing the yellow vibhuti packets. I walked up to her and introduced myself. Hearing that I had come to listen to the vibhuti story, her eyes sparkled.

“What shall I tell you? You have come 2 years too late! Bujiamma has left for her hometown because of her advanced age. She would have definitely narrated hundreds of stories related to the vibhuti manufacture!”

“You mean to say that till 2012 it was still Bujiamma who did the vibhuti mixing?”

“Yes! When the demand for vibhuti became very high, a machine was brought. But even then, it was Bujiamma who maintained the proportions of the perfumes in the vibhuti. She taught me how to do it, saying that she would be gone for a few months of ‘vacation’. We came to know later that she would not be returning.”

Then, Ramaniyamma gave a detailed description of how the process takes place. A truck arrives once or twice a month from Palani with the raw vibhuti and unloads the sacks at the unloading bay of the shed. Ramaniyamma takes a tub full of vibhuti and adds the perfumes in their respective ‘spooned’ proportions. The vibhuti in the tub is thoroughly mixed along with chanting of the spiritual hymns and mantras (no fixed ones though). This ‘concentrated’ vibhuti is now equally distributed into 40 small bags. A worker, Ratnakar by name, who has been in the ‘manufacturing facility’ for the past 40 years, then adds a sackful of raw vibhuti into the mixing machine. To this, he adds one small bag of the ‘concentrated’ vibhuti. Over the next hour, the machine mixes and drops the vibhuti which is ready for use. This vibhuti is transported in huge vessels to the packing area which is separated from the machine room by a wall. 
 

The evolution of the vibhuti packaging
 

There are about ten ladies who, through sheer experience, place approximately 100 gms of vibhuti into yellow packets. These packets pass through the ‘balancers’ who place each packet on a weighing balance and remove/add vibhuti to total an exact 100 gms. These ladies then pass on the packets to the ‘sealers’ who press an electric handle to seal the packets. The Divine prasadam is ready to reach the devotee now.

However, this process of packaging has also evolved over two decades now. In 1986, the original packaging involves a yellow paper cover into which the vibhuti would get filled. To prevent moisture from making the ash soggy, the paper packet would then be covered in a yellow-coloured, transparent plastic sheet. This would then be tied with a thin, white twine. This elaborate packaging was very labour intensive.

In 1994, Swami spent almost 8 months staying at the Brindavan ashram in Whitefield, Bangalore. Naturally, the crowds in Brindavan were much more compared to those in Puttaparthi during that time. That was the time when, with Swami’s permission, Mr. Ruchir Desai (faculty at the Brindavan Campus and who till date manages the co-operative stores in Brindavan) started the manufacture of vibhuti at the Brindavan ashram as well. This was essential to meet the ever increasing demand for vibhuti from the devotees. With great difficulty Ruchir Desai obtained the formula from Bujiamma. Bujiamma gave the formulation only after receiving confirmation that Swami had indeed instructed him to start vibhuti-making at Bangalore. On some days, more than a 1000 packets would be sold in a matter of hours and even shifting of the manufacturing process did not seem to solve the problem of heightened demand. The bottleneck for production was the packing process. In a bid to increase production to meet the growing demand from devotees and clear this bottleneck, Ruchir Desai approached Swami.

He informed Swami about the existing packing method and sought blessings for a new packing method. Printed plastic covers were obtained which could be instantly sealed with a hot electric press. Swami selected the suitable design for the cover and also gave instructions on what should be printed on the cover. Thus, the modern packaging that we see today came into existence, again with blessings and permission from Swami. 
 

A real Labour of Love

Ramaniyamma and her dedicated team of volunteers consider it a great blessing to be able to pack the greatest treasure on earth - vibhuti! They were once offered salaries for the 5-6 hours of hard labour they put in on a daily basis - without weekends, without vacations - but they flatly refused.

“This is something we wish to do for Swami. How can we accept money for it?”

	.

The same is the story in Brindavan too, with the volunteer team there being headed by Mrs. Bhutia.

These apart, there is need for a separate team to make vibhuti packets that are made available asprasadam for every devotee visiting the ashram, either in the PRO office, security office or accommodation office. This separate team is constituted by very elderly ladies, some of them even in their eighties, who sit during and after the bhajans, packing vibhuti. Like the volunteers who are involved in the large scale manufacture and packing, these ladies too seek nothing but His Love for their efforts. They can be seen silently doing their activity behind the bhajan hall in Prasanthi Nilayam, making small packets. These are 10 gms packets which are made from the pages of the 'Likhita Nama Japa Sadhana'books. These books hold the divine name, written thousands of times over, by devotees as part of their sadhana or spiritual practice. Once the book is complete, it travels to the ashrams where it gets transformed into the holder and carrier of the sacred ash. 
 

That, in brief, is the story of the vibhuti-manufacture. Though a lot of detail has been presented here one detail has been left out. And that is not because it was forgotten; it was more because it was taken for granted that everyone knows it. The most important ingredient of the vibhuti is the infinite Love and Grace of Bhagawan Baba that it always contains!

The story of vibhuti-manufacture has many more experiences and narratives embedded in it and one article will never be sufficient to capture all that glory. But if any reader is keen to know these most fascinating tales, the best way would be to join this dedicated team and volunteer to pack the vibhuti when you are at Prasanthi Nilayam or Brindavan. That would be a win-win situation. You will get fascinating stories and a chance to be part of this magnificently divine process of making the mahaprasadam. The volunteer team manufacturing the vibhuti will get much-needed help in increasing their productivity to meet the burgeoning vibhuti-need worldwide. 
 

Those that wish to offer themselves in this labour of love may kindly contact the PRO (Mr. Murali) of the ashram at Prasanthi Nilayam. Those that wish to do the same at the Whitefield ashram may contact Mr. Ruchir Desai. 
 

Paramam Pavitram Baba Vibhutim

Paramam Vichitram Leela Vibhutim

Paramartham Ishtartha Moksha Pradaatam

Baba Vibhutim Idam Ashrayaami