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The
first question is, What is God or its reflection named
Conscience? Sai Baba, over a period of 15 years, made
Akbar understand that God is a scientific reality and
not merely a matter of faith. Akbar's story is recorded
in the book "Sai
Baba's Teachings on Direct Flight to Divinity"
by Atoms of Sai (Sai Anoos).
The basic gist is recorded here.
"Spirituality
is very easy."
Sai Baba said. He was looking straight into Akbar's
eyes and explaining, "All
you have to do is to understand and then experience
that I am I".
Akbar was in a small group of devotees in Sai Baba's
interview room. It was a casual remark. Baba made it
sound so simple. Akbar wondered what 'I
am I' meant. He had been to most of the known
gurus in India. He and his wife had been going to holy
shrines and spiritual teachers for many years.
In a nutshell, Baba had explained the destination and
the route map of the Direct Flight to Divinity.
Sai Baba, having made the opening remark about 'I
am I', had paused to let it sink into
Akbar's mind. He then continued, "As
long as you think you are Akbar, Ratnam or Ramaya, you
have not understood." And that ended Sai
Baba's spiritual regimen for Akbar.
It took a long while for Akbar to unravel the significance
of 'I
am I', -the destination or goal. This,
in simple words, means 'I
am God'. It was a shattering discovery
for Akbar "How could a clot like me be God?",
he wondered.
Many years later, Akbar realised the value of this blunt
but basic truth. The world has tons of spiritual literature.
He found numerous aspirants like himself, going around
what apparently was a mulberry bush of spirituality,
without making any progress. Terms like self-realisation,
nirvana and merger
confused his simple mind.
Akbar realised the immense value of the regimen prescribed
for him when he came across a declaration by Sai Baba
that, for spiritual progress, "guri
is
far more important than guru". Guri
is a Telegu word meaning aim. The aim or goal of
human birth is to achieve permanent bliss (anand),
by understanding and then experiencing that "I
am I" - a temporary
form of the power called God.
As a student of history, Akbar also realised the wisdom
of Krishna's divine design in revealing the Gita's immortal
message on a battle field instead of a holy shrine or
an ashram. In the art of warfare, military commanders,
all over the world, learn that they have to plan and
fight their battles in accordance with the principles
of war evolved in battles since the dawn of history.
All the principles are of equal importance. However,
the one that is considered to be the first among the
equals is the 'selection and maintenance of aim'. The
war that goes on constantly inside us has to be won
by fighting our internal battles in accordance with
the basic principles for this war - truth, right conduct,
peace, divine love and non-injury (sathya,
dharma, santhi, prema and
ahimsa). But the victory needs a purpose,
a goal, and aim. That is why Sai Baba has placed guri
above even a guru.
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The key to be on the Direct Flight is to detach
the mind from its entrenched habit of thinking that
'I am the body named X' and attach it to the power
or reality inside us (given various names like Soul,
Atma, God), which makes the inert body sentient,
the heart to beat, the lungs to breathe, the eyes
to see, the ears to hear, the nose to smell and the
mind and intellect to function. This process of retraining
consists of:
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- To
understand that whatever our senses can perceive
is merely a temporary form or appearance of the
power or source named God, from which these forms
arise; these are sustained by it for the designated
shelf life, as it were, and finally merge back into
this source. This is a small proportion of the struggle.
It is acquired by reading, study, company of good
people (satsang) and contemplation.
- To
train the mind to shift its attention from what
it can perceive and focus it on the perceiver, which
is the power that is the source inside the insentient
body making it sentient. This is the major portion
of the struggle.
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reward of this struggle is an increasing degree
of happiness and peace of mind. When we have direct
experience of this power, popularly named God, we
reach the stage of permanent happiness and peace
that is the goal of life. While moving on this path
our effectiveness in our occupation grows.
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The
first help that Akbar got about this cosmic power named
God was from Sai Baba in a casual conversation. Baba,
while passing by Akbar, paused and asked, "How
is Akbar?".
Akbar had recently been advised of the meaning of his
name. In Arabic, it means 'the great'. Akbar felt a
bit self-conscious and blurted out "Not me, Baba,
Swami - hu - Akbar". Meaning Swami is great.
Swami stopped, pointed his finger at Akbar, and said,
"no,
no, I am I". This refocused Akbar's mind
on the aim that was set for him; to understand and experience
that he was, in fact, God's temporary form.
Akbar, guided by Ratnam, read Sai Baba books, attended
discussions and contemplated on what he read despite
his busy life running a Management Institute. He understood
two basic factors about the power named God:
First:
The
power named God has been experienced by seekers all
over the world. They have conveyed this experience in
the utterances in the table below. The words That,
Father, Truth and ONE in the table
indicate the "Real I" which is God. Our deep
rooted misperception that ' I ' denotes the body named
X, Y or Z is a delusion that has to be removed.
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Thou
Art That
The perennial philosophy of India since the dawn
of history.
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Old
Testament. |
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Jesus
Christ, using the world 'Father' for God.
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I
am the Truth
Articulation by the famous Mystic of Baghdad, Al
Hillaj, when he experienced his Reality.
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- When you know yourself,
"I-ness" vanishes
and you know that you and God are one and the
same.
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The
experience of the famous Muslim Muhyiud-Din Arabi,
the Great Sheikh. |
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All
is One, Guru Nanak |
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Second:
Realisation that came to Akbar was that different
names have been given to the power generally named God.
The table below shows but a few. Spiritual scientists
in India, working in the laboratories of their brains
analysed and found that this power has three characteristics
as shown below. Also that these three characteristics
are as inseparable as liquidity, transparency and wetness
of a glass of clean water.
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| I |
God |
| Self |
Allah |
| Brahman |
Tao |
| Paramatma |
Chu
(Ku-Ke) |
| Divinity |
Oversoul |
| Ahura
Mazda |
Supreme
Creator |
| Jehovah |
Superforce |
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| Akbar
started understanding the basic reality that he, as well
as everything else in the universe is a temporary form
of God from a simple demonstration he saw in a lecture
by another fellow seeker in Sai Baba's Ashram. |
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