Vahini Series

Lord Krishna, while sermonising Arjuna on the tenets of dharma in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, declared: Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati Bharata, abhyutthanamadharmasya tadatmanam srujamyaham [Oh Arjuna! When there is a decline in dharma (righteousness) and rise in adharma (unrighteousness), I incarnate Myself for the establishment of dharma]. God is the embodiment of dharma; His grace is won by following the dharmic way of life. He is ever fostering dharma, He is ever establishing dharma. Dharma expresses itself in a variety of forms. Sometimes, it is known by the people, who codified it, like Manu-dharma, sometimes by the group that followed it, like caste-dharma, sometimes by the stage of life, to which it is applied, like celibate-dharma, householder-dharma, and so forth. One has to meticulously follow the dharma prescribed for his/her stage of life. Any transgression in this regard is adharmic. Similarly, there is dharma for the male (purusha-dharma) and female (stri-dharma). Chastity is the crown jewel for womankind. They can achieve anything by the strength derived from that virtue. This little book contains the articles written by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in the series "Dharma Vahini", for the monthly journal Sanathana Sarathi. Careful reading of this book and practising the dharmic guidelines laid down by Bhagawan Baba will help one to face the challenges of life courageously.

Prashna means “question”. Uttara means “answer” and Vahini indicates “a stream”. This book is the stream of the questions that have evoked answers from Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Among the tasks that Bhagawan has assumed while incarnating, He has declared as basic the one, which He calls, “The clarification and purification of the religious scriptures of mankind.” Every Vahini emanating from Him has done this service to some aspect or other of the spiritual uplift of man. This Vahini is one of the earliest in the series, since it seeks to elucidate the fundamental concepts and precepts of religion, especially the technical words and expressions that seek to concretise them. Hitherto published as an Appendix to a single Vahini, the Gita Vahini, it is now placed in the hands of seekers as a key publication, helpful for readers of all the Vahinis. The Ancient Wisdom (Sanathana Dharma), the Perennial Path, has been communicated to posterity in words that have suffered distortion, devaluation, dilution, and denigration through the efflux of time and the controversies among commentators. Varna, Ashrama, Yoga, Sanyasa, Yagnya, Karma—these are interpreted by dialecticians and practitioners of varied schools and sects, in confusing and contradictory versions. Bhagawan has resolved these tangles. His exemplary love and patience sweeten not only every answer, but every question too, for He has, by posturing as the interrogator, made the clarifications full and fruitful.

The Vedas originated from the breath of God; each syllable is sacred. Each word is a mantra. It exhorts all men to pursue the same holy desire. All hearts must be charged with the same good urge. All thoughts must be directed by noble motives towards holy ends. All men must tread the one path of truth, for all are manifestations of the One. The world is enchanting, because it is tantalising in appearance, though it is fundamentally untrue. It is a phenomenon, which is fading out. When this truth is realised, one becomes aware of the Cosmic Sport of God and the Eternal Universal Being. Leela Kaivalya Vahini (originally published in the Sanathana Sarathi periodical) is a cool, crystal clear stream that flows from the Divine pen of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to dissolve all obstacles, like doubts and dogmas, purposeless arguments, and flimsy fancies of the sadhaka (spiritual aspirant). We consider it be but yet another sign of His benign grace that these published in the periodicals could be given a book form and placed at the Lotus Feet, on the auspicious occasion of His 65th Birthday, which eventually falls on the 50th year of proclamation of Avatarhood. May this Vahini lead all seekers in the path of spiritual progress and fill us all with Ananda, the Bliss Absolute.

This is not just another book on the Nature of Jiva and the technique, by which the Jiva discovers its Reality. When you turn over the pages, you are actually sitting at the Feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the Avatar of the age, come in answer to the prayers of all Sadhus and Sadhakas to guide them and grant them peace and perfection. “Place all your burdens on Me,” He says. “Start on the spiritual pilgrimage this very Day,” He exhorts. “Why fear, when I am here?” He asks. His Grace is Omnipresent. His Miraculous Powers proclaim His Omnipotence. His wisdom, His analysis of the ills of humanity, and His Prescription for their cure reveal His Omniscience. You have the unique chance of meeting Him, at the Prasanthi Nilayam and receiving from Him His blessings for the success of your spiritual pilgrimage. He will know and appreciate your earnestness and faith, and you can continue with greater confidence and courage, because He is certain to assure victory. He is the Eternal Teacher of the Gita, the Charioteer in your heart. In the pages of the magazine, published with His Blessings and named after Him as Sanathana Sarathi, He wrote, out of His overwhelming Prema towards humanity, caught in the meshes of cynicism and creedal fanaticism, this series of articles, called Gnyana Vahini. Month after month, thousands of readers awaited these articles (in the original Telugu as well as in the English translation) and when they received their copy, they perused it diligently and with reverential eagerness. They are now put together in book form, for your guidance and inspiration.

Bhagawan has announced Himself as the Divine Teacher of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. By precept and example, through His writings and discourses, letters and conversations, He has been instilling the supreme wisdom and instructing all mankind to translate it into righteous living, inner peace, and universal love. When the Ramakatha Rasavahini, the uniquely authentic, nectarine stream of the Rama’s story, was serialised in full in the Sanathana Sarathi, Bhagawan blessed readers with a new series, which He named Bharatiya Paramartha Vahini (The Stream of Indian Spiritual Values). While these precious essays, on the basic truths that foster and feed Indian culture since ages before history began, were being published, Bhagawan decided to continue the flow of illumination and instruction under a more comprehensive and meaningful name, Sathya Sai Vahini - the Ganga from the Lotus Feet of the Lord - “The Flow of Divine Sai Grace”. This book, therefore, contains the two Vahinis that have merged in one master stream. Inaugurating these series, Bhagawan wrote for publication in the Sanathana Sarathi, “Moved by the urge to cool the heat of conflict and to quench the agonising thirst for ‘knowledge about yourself’ that you are afflicted with, see, here it comes, the Sathya Sai Vahini, wave behind wave, with the Sanathana Sarathi as the medium between you and Me.” With infinite compassion, this Sathya Sai incarnation of the Omniwill is giving millions of persons in all lands freedom from disease, distress, and despair, narcotics, narcissism, and nihilism. He is encouraging those, who suffer gloom through wilful blindness, to light the Lamp of Love in order to see the world and the Lamp of Wisdom to see themselves. “This is a tantalising, true-false world. Its apparent diversity is an illusion. It is One, but is cognised by the maimed, multiple vision of humans as Many,” says Bhagawan. This book is the twin Lamp He has devised for us.

Addressing a mammoth gathering at Gudur some years ago, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba said, “You will not be wrong, if you call Me Prema-Swaroopa.” In fact, Baba showers Prema (Love), seeks Prema, and establishes Prema in the heart of the individual, the fabric of society, and the complex of nations. Humanity, which has lost its way and is shivering in terror, unable to control the evil that it has generated by its insane pranks, needs Baba’s Grace and Prema, to allay its neurosis and bring it back to the Light. Baba had said twenty-two years ago that He would inaugurate His Task of recreating and reforming Man on the true basis of Dharma, when He should have completed thirty-two years of stay here upon the Earth. In 1958, when He reached that moment, He blessed the venture of a monthly magazine and He named it Sanathana Sarathi, a name full of the fragrance of the Gita and the Lord’s Role as the Charioteer of whoever selects Him as the Guide. It is significant that the very first series of articles that Baba wrote for the Sanathana Sarathi was Prema Vahini. These discourses are collected in this book, as they were first presented, in English translation. Sathya (truth), Dharma (righteousness, code of duties, essential nature of a being or thing), Shanti (peace), and Prema (Love) are the Four Pillars of the new World of the Sai Era and under Baba’s guidance, humanity has to discover Shanti, through Prema. For that task, this book will be of great help. While reading it, you are in touch with the very source of Prema. While translating its message into action, you are visibly led on by the Grace of the Lord Himself and while enjoying the thrill of Sadhana (spiritual practice) prescribed here, you are responding to the majesty of the very Ocean of Mercy.

Baba has clarified that the word Vidya used for this Vahini (Stream of Thought), means (Ya) that which (Vid) “illumines.” It is this sense that is highlighted in expressions like Atma Vidya, Brahma Vidya, etc., or even the name Vidyagiri given to the campus of Prasanthi Nilayam, which comprises the Institute of Higher Learning. Baba makes us aware of the comparatively less beneficial lower learning, which deals with theories, inferences, concepts, conjectures, and constructions. The Higher Learning hastens and expands the universal urge to know and become Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, Sathyam Sivam Sundaram. Baba has come as Man among men on a self-imposed mission, to correct the wrongs inflicted on mankind through the fanatically blind pursuit of lower learning. The human race has to voyage on an even keel; it is leaning too alarmingly towards the briny grave; the lower learning is lowering it into the bottomless pit. Vidya alone is the remedy. From His childhood days, Baba has stood forth as an educator, a Guru as the villagers loved to address Him. He warned, without hesitation, elders at Puttaparthi, teachers in the schools, and headmen of castes against cruelty to animals and exploitation of labour, usury and gambling, pedantry and illiteracy, hypocrisy and pomp. Through gulps and jests, parody and satire, songs and plays, the young, teenager Teacher ridiculed and reformed the society, which honoured or tolerated such evils. Through Bhajans sung in chorus by groups of men and women, He reminded them of the universal, human values of Truth, Morality, Peace, Love, and Non-violence as early as 1943, when he was barely seventeen. These were the basic acquisitions that Vidya, the Higher Learning, can confer on votaries. As Lord Krishna, He said to Arjuna, “Adhyatma Vidya, Vidyanaam.” “Among all the Vidyas, I am Atma Vidya,” the search for Atmic Truth. The world can be saved from suicide only through this Vidya. The search for Truth and Totality, for Unity and Purity is the means; the Awareness of the One is the consummation of the process. This Message is the sum and substance of every Discourse of His, during the last five decades. This precious book provides us the chance to peruse nineteen essays He wrote, in answer to appeals for the elucidation of the principles, which must guide us while rehabilitating education as an effective instrument for establishing peace and freedom, in us and on Earth.

We are, today, right in the vortex of a crisis in human history. Fear stalks mankind from one end of the world to the other. Anxiety rules the heart of man and deprives him, everywhere, of sleep and rest and joy and laughter. Virtue has become rare and wickedness puts on respectable robes. In the family, in society, in the nation, and in the community of man, there is a pathetic cry for peace, shanti! But, we need not despair. We have a Prasanthi Nilayam, the Abode of Supreme Peace, where Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has inaugurated the process of re-establishing Prasanthi (highest spiritual peace)! His Miraculous Powers proclaim Him a God. His Omniscience astounds the pundits of science. His Omnipresence is felt even across the seven seas. His Grace is available to all, who cleanse their hearts with the tears of repentance. He is thirty-six years of age, now and He has promised to wear this human habiliment for well-nigh sixty years more. He teaches us the secret of Prasanthi in conversation, by speeches, and through His letters and writings. These last are to be found in the monthly magazine, published from the Prasanthi Nilayam, and this book is the English Translation of a series He wrote, on the subject, “Prasanthi”. Study it with devotion, dear reader, and practise its lessons, for they are from the Avatar of the Lord Himself, come to retell the ancient wisdom to men, who have lost the way.

Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba wrote a series of articles under the Vahini series, for Sanathana Sarathi, a monthly magazine being published by Sri Sathya Sai Sadhana Trust, Publications Division, Prasanthi Nilayam. These precious articles are brought out now, under the title “Geeta Vahini”, in this book, for the benefit of readers. This is not a commentary or summary of the divine message that was given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna. It conveys the same message in a simpler form to us, in order to remove our delusion and confer faith and strength on us, so that we may realise our own reality. Bhagawan says, “Drawing on the Divine that is inherent in us is the lesson of Geeta... Arjuna is the jiva and Krishna is the Deva. When both are in contact, impregnable might results... Krishna had to work in and through Arjuna, so that the reign of Dharma (righteousness) is re-established. Arjuna means white, pure, unblemished. Hence, he is the proper instrument.” We too can become proper instruments in restoring Dharma, if we follow the lessons that Bhagawan teaches through this book.