Sathya Sai Baba's Vision of the Ideal Society

::::::::

"Social Life and Atmic Sadhana"

From "Sai Baba: the Holy Man and the Psychiatrist" by Dr. Samuel Sandweiss. Reprinted with permission.

"What have sociology or the social sciences to do with the sciences of the spirit or the inquiry into the human spirit? This is a question that is commonly raised. So too, many ask: What has the spiritual student and sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) to do with society and its problems? It must be said that both these attitudes are wrong.

No society can find its fulfillment, no social ideal can fructify, without the blossoming of the spirit of man. Mankind cannot realize the divinity whose expression it is, without careful and constant attention being paid to the cultivation of the spirit. How else can this divinity express itself than in and through individuals? We can apprehend only the jagath (transitory world), this moving, inconstant fantasia; we cannot see or hear, smell or taste or touch the director of the fantasia--God. In the same manner, we can apprehend the individual, but not the entity named society, for society is no separate, distinct complex, formed out of elemental components. Society is the divine proliferation produced by the will supreme.

Man is mortal: dust he is and to dust returneth. But, in him, there shines the Atma, as a spark of the immortal flame. This is not a term of flattery invented by the Vedantists. The Atma is the source, the sustenance, of every being and every organization of beings. It is the one and only source, substance and sustenance. The Atma is God; the particular is the universal, no less. Therefore, recognize in each being, in each man, a brother, the child of God, and ignore all limiting thoughts and prejudices based on status, color, class, nativity and caste. Sai is ever engaged in warning you and guiding you so that you may think, speak and act in this attitude of love.

Society cannot justify itself by planning to divide the spoils gained from nature, either in equal shares or unequal shares. The consummation that must inspire society has to be the establishment and elaboration, in every social act and resolution, of the knowledge of the one universal Atma, and the bliss that knowledge confers.

Sai does not direct: "The Atma has no death; therefore, kill the physical sheaths, the bodies." No, Sai does not encourage wars. Sai directs you to recognize the Atma as your closest kin, closer than the members of your family, your blood relations and your dearest descendants. When this is done, you will never more stray from the path of right, which alone can maintain that kinship.

Familial attachment operates even against the performance of one's legitimate duties. But attachment to the divine fills that duty with a new dedication which ensures both joy and success. It activates man as nothing else can; it confers on him, during the process of doing his duty, the highest wisdom. Hence the advice: Do not enter the objective world (prakriti) in the hope of realizing the Atma; enter the objective world after becoming aware of the Atma: for then you see nature in a new light and your very life becomes a long festival of love.

There are many who use their scholarship and intelligence, even Vedic scholarship, in dreary debate and competitive display. They are enamored of their petty triumphs. They declare that society is an arena for winning such triumphs. But Sai calls on you to seek and strengthen another type of society, where there is no room for such trivial desires.

Disputative Vedic scholars crave the fruits of their endeavors and efforts, through ritual. Nature does not crave so; the clouds bring rain as an homage to God who is their Lord. But they attribute it to the efficacy of their rites and use it to inflate their egos. They play about among the far-spreading branches of the tree of Desire. They are entangled in the coils of the three "ropes"----the thamasic, the rajasic and the sathwic.1

You have to go beyond the three ropes, the three bonds. You have to be, ever, in the unchanging eternal Truth. You must be established in the One, as the One, with no trace or taste of two. Earning and garnering should not interest you; you must not be caught in the pursuit if yaga (outer-directed activity) and kshema (possessiveness), for you are full already and have no wants.

The ideal of a high standard life, instead of a high level of living, has played havoc with human society. A high level of living insists on morality, humility, detachment, compassion; so the competitive greed for luxury and conspicuous consumption receives no encouragement and will be destroyed. Now man is the slave of his desires; he finds himself helpless to conquer the thirst for pleasure and luxury; he is too weak to keep his nature under control; he does not know how to arouse the Divine Consciousness that is latent in him.

Mere moral practices or instruction cannot help you to achieve this. It can be done only by spiritual sadhana (spiritual work), for it is a basic transformation. It involves the elimination if the mind, which is the arch-obstacle in the path. Grace of God, if invoked and won, can endow you with the power, and the grace is available within you, awaiting the call.

1 According to the Samkhya philosophy, prakriti (nature) in contrast with Purusha (soul), consists of three gunas (qualities or strands), known as tamas, rajas and sattva. Tamas stands for inertia or dullness, rajas for activity or restlessness, and sattva for balanced wisdom.

Man must give up reliance on the vagaries of the mind. He must act ever in the consciousness of his innate divinity. When that is done, his three--fold nature (composed of the gunas (qualities) ----thamasic, rajasic and sathwic) will automatically express itself through only holy channels. That is the genuine manifestation.

Another point: The argument may be raised: if one has to give up the desire for comfort, luxury and pleasure, why should one be embroiled in society?" This presupposes the belief that society is justified only by the provision of such worldly joys. But what kind of society can one build on such slender foundations? If built, it can be a society only in name. It will not be bound by mutual love and cooperation. The strong will suppress the weak. Social relations will be marred by discontent. Even when attempts are made to divide the resources of nature equally among all, the cordiality will be only on the surface, it will not be spontaneous. We can limit the resources available, but we cannot limit greed, desire and craving.

Desire involves seeking beyond the limits of possibility. What has to be done is to pluck out desire by the roots. Man must give up the desire for objective pleasure, based on the illusion that the world is many, manifold, multi--colored, etc., and not on the truth that the world, nature, all creation, is One. When one is conscious only of the One, who desires what? What can be acquired and enjoyed by the second person? The Atmic vision destroys the desire for objective joys, for there is no object distinct from the subject.

This is the true function of society--to enable every member to realize this Atmic vision. The men and women bound by mutual interests in a society are not merely families, castes, classes, groups or kinsmen and kinswomen; they are One Atma. They are knit by the closest of family ties; not only the one society to which they feel they are bound, but all mankind, is One. Vasudhaika kutumbakam, as the Sastras (scriptures) declare: the whole world is one family. This unity must be experienced by everyone.

Natural resources and wealth are now being misused for the boosting of one's ego. But when the Atmic unity is realized, they will promote the new way of life through love. What is now "mercy," or legally enforced mutual "help," will then be transformed into "divine love" that can effectively purify the recipient and the giver. This consummation is beyond the region of common politics, ethics or economics. They cannot transform the receiver and thrill the giver, however much they attempt to equalize. They do not have the appeal and they have no power to sustain. The equality they establish will be haunted by a shadow, the shadow of the ego. This shadow can disappear only when identity as One is known and felt.

It may be said that not all desires are wrong; the rajasic ones which harm and exploit others can be condemned, but why renounce the sathwic desires? But desire is desire, though the object may be beneficial and pure. The fruit of fort, the mind that seeks it, the vitality that activates the mind, life itself----every one of these has to be turned towards the Lord, with devotion born out of the vision of the One.

Those who argue that the spiritual path is for the individual only, and that the society should not be involved in it, are committing a great mistake. It is like insisting that there should be light inside the house, and saying that it does not matter there is darkness outside. Devotion towards God goes ill with hatred towards fellow-men.

Fellow-men and the world must be seen ever in the mirror of Sath-chith-ananda (existence, knowledge, bliss; the Supreme state). Kinship based on this recognition will alone last. That is the Sai kinship. When you deepen that kinship, the true presence, the constant presence of Sathya Sai, will be yours. Do not be led away by your fancies into the jungle of words and feelings. Be firm, true to your innermost nature.

Good and evil are based on the reactions of individuals; they are not inherent in things or events. Vedanta or atheism is accepted or rejected when one likes or dislikes it. They do not depend on logical acceptance or rejection. Only experience can establish their validity. Who can delineate Godhood as thus and thus? Those who do so are indulging in a futile exercise. They have no authority for declaring it. If they claim the right, they are but conceited people relying on their limited intellects.

Divinity is fully immanent in everyone; it is patent for the eyes that can see clearly and deeply. Whoever denies this is only cheating himself of his reality. He cannot dismiss it by denial, either from himself or others.

The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable: that it is the duty of man to see in society the expression of divinity, and to use all his skill and fort to promote the welfare and prosperity of society. Man must cultivate this expansive feeling, this inclusive thinking and this intuitive vision. Without these three, man is but an inert being; if he derides these three, he loses his title to be human.

The spirit of renunciation, adherence to virtue, the eagerness to cooperate, the sense of kinship--these are the characteristic signs of man. Life which considers these as encumbrances cannot be valued as life.

The brotherhood of man can be translated into life only on the basis of the Atmic vision. All men thirst for peace, happiness and bliss. They are the precious heritage which is man's right, for they are God's treasure. They can be earned only by recognizing the bond that knits man to man. All men are of one lineage; they are of divine lineage.

All men are cells in the one divine organism, in the divine body. That should be your faith, your fortune, your fort, your fullness. Awareness of this alone gives you the right to call yourself a man. Learn to live as men. This is the sadhana, this is the message, of Sai."

Some useful links:

Sathya Sai Baba's Declaration, 11/23/68:

click here

Some good source material on Sai Baba:

click here

Special supplement distributed by the "Times of India" in observance of Sai Baba's 85th Birthday, 11/23/10:

click here

"A Few Glimpses of Sri Sathya Sai":

Main international web site: