This book had its beginnings during the Western Canada Sal Retreat at Calgary, in August 1989, when after my brief participation in one of the panels on the programme entitled 'Ceiling on Desires and its Relationship to Human Values', a member of the audience from Edmonton, Canada, got up. posed some questions and commented on the presentation, concluding his remarks by saying that I should write a book. This person was so persistent in his request that on my return to India at the end of October of that year I started thinking seriously about it. This publication is the result.
Although much of the material presented here is based on personal experience, the book actually wrote itself, for whatever is written was not my doing, and was inspired by the Inner Motivator.
BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA.
To Whose Lotus Feet this volume is lovingly dedicated.
Many are the pathways leading to the Infinite. The Vedas state that God is one, but wise men call Him by many names.
Although we are born equally divine with a similar atmic core, yet physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. each of us manifests different characteristics a seemingly infinite variety. We may follow the path of action, of devotion, of meditation or of knowledge, or a combination of these; yet each one of us will have our individual approach to the pathway of our choice. It is as if each person becomes his own individual path.
There is utmost freedom here no straight and narrow way designated by a particular master or teacher demanding adherence to a particular code of conduct. The human spirit is free to roam the pathways of Truth; free to choose one that most appeals to it; free to accept or reject a guide or Guru; free to pursue or turn away from the path itself. Nothing is stereotyped, nothing dictated by the sacerdotal hierarchy to compel acceptance for fear of ex-communication. The aspirant has free will to say yea' or 'nay; to accept or not to accept. In this spiritual ocean of freedom floats the Perennial Philosophy (Sanatana Dharmal or the Eternal Religion a philosophy with universal appeal, adhering to no dogma or the tenets of any particular religious group.
Today, science and technology, the modern gods to whom all bow down in reverence and adoration, have chosen to forget that behind everything material lies the subtle and invisible, to which form and matter owe their very existence. For more than two centuries science has denied the existence of a Creator, theorizing a mechanistic universe; and those scientists who acknowledged the Di-vine origin of the universe, conveniently put God out of the way and visualized the created world as operating automatically according to certain fixed laws. Today, however, saner voices are being heard from outstanding persons in the scientific world.
The much quoted saying of Einstein sums up the situation "Science without religion is lame: religion without science is blind." The Cartesian view "I think, therefore I exist," is now being discarded by modern scientific thinkers and the Vedic "I am, therefore I think is slowly insinuating itself into the mentality of Western intellectuals.
Quantum and post-quantum physicists are beginning to realize that the universe is a 'cosmic web that it is interconnected and that everything in it. Man, Nature and the Creator are inter-related and inter-dependent. They have even begun to use the word 'consciousness in their writings and lectures. Some of them have gone so far as to state that Indian philosophy and religion may have to show the West the way back towards truth and reality. Such scientists as Fritjof Capra, David Bohm. Rupert Sheldrake. to mention only a few, are in this category. Sri Sathya Sai Baba confirms what these modern scientists have been saying: "India was for long centuries the guide and guru of mankind, because people cultivated this type of spiritual intelligence. Today it has yielded place to falsehood, hypocrisy, injustice and greed. And again" "Bharat means the land that has 'rati' or attachment to 'bha' or Bhagawan; it means that the people here are God-loving. not so much God-fearing....
Vedas (1122)
Upanishads (473)
Puranas (607)
Ramayana (717)
Mahabharata (332)
Dharmasastras (155)
Goddess (480)
Bhakti (239)
Saints (1388)
Gods (1246)
Shiva (353)
Journal (162)
Fiction (53)
Vedanta (347)
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