Keep The Flag Flying

In a poem that Baba composed and sang impromptu before commencing His speech, He announced Himself as Shri-natha, Loka-natha, and Anatha-natha (Lord of Lakshmi, of the world, and of the helpless), the same He, who saved Gajendra, the boy Dhruva, the poor Kuchela, and the helpless Prahlada!

The hearts of bhaktas gathered here are all blossoming now like lotuses when the sun rises, for they believe this is the day when the Lord was born in human form. I may tell them that every day is Janmotsavam, a Brahmotsavam, an anandotsavam (different kinds of festivals), at Puttaparthi, as well as wherever bhaktas are. The Nirakara (the Formless) comes in narakara (form of man) when the virtue of the good and the vice or the wicked reach a certain stage. Prahlada's devotion and his father's disregard both had to ripen before Narasimha Avatar could take place. To know the truth of the Avatar, the sadhaka must culture the mind, as the ryot does the field. He has to clear the field of thorny undergrowth, wild creepers, and tenuous roots. He has to plough the land, water it, and sow the seeds well. He has to guard the seedlings and tender plants from insect pests as well as from the depredations of goats and cattle; he has to put up a fence all around. So too, egoism, pride, and greed have to be removed from the heart; satya, japa, dhyana (truth, repetition of the Lord's name, and meditation) form the ploughing and the leveling; prema is the water that has to soak into the field and make it soft and rich; nama is the seed, and bhakti is the sprout; kama and krodha are the cattle, and the fence is discipline; ananda is the harvest.

Knowledge Is The Final Stage Of Karma

Of course, you will get faith in God only when you have yourselves discovered that the Universe must have a Creator, a Protector, an Agency for both evolution and involution, or a Power that exercises all these three functions. To grasp that idea, the heart must be pure, the mind must be clear. For this, karma is very important. The karma-kanda (section dealing with rituals) in the Vedas is the major part of the Sruti, for jnana is but the final stage of karma. The army will have many soldiers, but only just a handful of officers; so too, karmas are many, and they all obey the jnani. Of the hundred parts of the Vedas, 80 will be karma, 16 upasana, and 4 jnana. Karma has to be done for educating the impulses and training the feelings. Then, you develop the attitude of upasana, of humility before the great Unknown, and finally, you realize that the only reality is you, which is the same as He.

You hear nowadays of equality (samanatvam), of each being equal to the rest. This is a wrong notion, for we find the parents and children differently equipped; when one is happy, the other is miserable; there is no equality in hunger or joy. Of course all are equally entitled to love and sympathy, and to the grace of God. All are entitled to the medicines in the hospital, but what is given to one should not be given to another. There can be no equality in the doling out of medicine! Each deserves the medicine that will cure him of his illness.

I know that this struggle in the name of equality is only one of the ways in which man is trying to get ananda. In almost all parts of the world man is, today, pursuing many such shortcuts and wrong paths to achieve ananda. But, let Me tell you, without reforming conduct, daily behavior, the little acts of daily life, ananda will be beyond reach. I consider pravartana (practice) as essential. A man or an institution is to be judged by his or its integrity, whether the actions are according to the principles professed. The mind, the body, the word—all three must work in unison. By such disciplined karma the senses will be sublimated and prasanti won; then, out of this prasanti will arise prakanti (the great light), and from that will emerge Paramjyoti (the suprasplendor or illumination). That illumination will reveal Paramatma (the Oversoul), the Universal.

Now, I am hoisting on this Prasanthi Nilayam the Prasanthi flag, according to the convention that has grown here, like the conventions in the material plane. The flag represents the spiritual discipline I have laid down for you: conquest of kama and krodha, achievement of prema and the practice of japa yoga, leading to the blossoming of the lotus of the heart and the emergence of the jyoti of jnana therein. When I hoist it over the Nilayam, you should convert your hearts into Prasanthi Nilayams and hoist the flag there too, and keep it flying.

Prasanthi Nilayam, 23-11-1964