Om Sri Sai Guru Ganeshaya Namaha

SAI BALA

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Jai Sai Ram

THE TEN FOLD PATH TO DIVINITY

Fold 5

Do not throw coins when beggars stretch their hands for aims: help them to
become self-reliant. Provide food and shelter, love and care, for the sick
and the aged.

BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA

The next fold will be on the next week’s newsletter.

Jai Sai Ram.

THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE BY BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA

The Vedas have declared, not through acts, not through progeny, not through
wealth can immortality be won; it can be won only through renunciation.

The Vedas declare that His Grace, that is to say, Immortality can be
achieved by detachment and renunciation rather than by hectic activity or
affluence or progeny. Give up; do not grasp in clenched fists. Release, do
not bind and get bound.

The Vedas teach man that all are kins, that all are divine. They emphasize
that God is Love.

BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA

Jai Sai Ram.

CHILDREN’S WORD FOR THE WEEK

ROSE

Be like a rose that speaks silently the language of fragrance.

BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA

Jai Sai Ram.

STORY FOR THIS WEEK

THE PURNAVATARAS

According to the Indian conception, the Lord Vishnu has so far descended
incarnate in nine forms, UNTIL THE CURRENT SHRI SATYA SAI BABA THE
YUGAVATARA.

5. VAMANA

This is the first incarnation where no animal other than man symbolism is
used. Though Vamana is a man, he is said to be a batu a small boy.

This is a very significant incarnation.

We have seen in the last incarnation, Prahlada the son of Hiranyakashipu
ruled this earth as an ideal king at the behest of Lord Nrisimha who was in
fact the collective will of his people. He ruled his empire with exemplary
righteousness and thus upheld the Vedic way of life.

His son was Virochana who had inherited more of his grand father
Hiranyakashipu’s rather than his father Prahlada’s qualities. To be a man
running after the waywardness of his sense desires is easier than to control
these and be an ideal for others to follow. To exercise control over sense
desires is very very difficult. To be a Prahlada requires lot of training of
mind and development of discipline in life. Virochana made concerted efforts
to imbibe the virtues as preached by the Vedas. He got admission into the
hermitage of the Upanishadic sages. But he was so extrovert that hecould not
bring himself to believe that the self in himself is the Paramatman, the
source of all this universe. His rule proved to be very ineffective.

His son Bali was however, of a different mould. He had all the qualities of
an highbred administrator. He was a born ruler of men. His only weakness was
that like his father and unlike his grandfather, he had no faith in the
Vedas which preached the integral way of life, harmony between the spiritual
and the temporal.

He had learnt the lesson from his great grand father Hiranyakashipu’s fate,
that he can not antagonize the Brahmanas nor can he ride roughshod over the
wishes of his people. Though he had no faith in the Vedas, finding that the
people loved the rituals, he employed the Brahmanas to perform the yajnas
the mode of worship where people gathered together on a large scale. The
Emperor Bali himself was the host who performed the worship and distributed
Daxina amongst the Brahmanas liberally and fed the people generously.

This was his outward way of keeping his people happy. But internally he
believed in materialism, and so organised the educational system on secular
lines. He stopped grants to the hermitages of the Upanishadic teachers who
were in charge of education of the masses. These sages though had no
political power, yet because of their learning and saintly way of life, they
excersised tremendous influence on the administration. No King or Emperor
could ignore these sages. Bali had the streak of dictatorship in his
character and concentrated all political power in his hands. He doled out
political offices according to his sole desire. He employed trained men for
different posts but saw to it, that they all owed allegiance to him, and to
him alone. He did recognise that the people in general have to be consulted
in Sabhas and Samitis and other organizations.

The sages were completely ignored. Though under his rule, people in general
were not unhappy, yet the sages felt that this way the society ultimately
would not be benefited. It will disintegrate. For there was no other
organised political institution which shared power along with the ruler.
Under such autocratic rule, individuality can not flourish or flower.

This had happened in the past. When Vena was the Emperor, because of his
arbitrary and dictatorial rule the people had to dethrone him and instal in
his place his son Prithu who cared for all the sections of the people
including the tiny minority of sages and others learned in the Vedas.

Sukracharya was the preceptor of Bali and he made the sages non entities in
the field of education. It became completely state-controlled. Whatever
state ordained was to be taught in the schools. No other education was to be
given. The Vedas or Upanishads were not to be taught. The education turned
men into robots.

Baba is now giving emphasis on Human Values. For the present system of
education is devoid of these. Because of these, Baba had discovered that th
character, which is the best ornament of man. Sheelam Param bhushanam was
neglected to the back ground. Good character is the back-bone of any good
society. Instead of this, like the present times, mercenaries were being
churned out of the universities in Bali’s days too.

The sages, the learned brahmans, the thinking section amongst the other
classes, were horrified at the state of affairs, Bali’s administration was
leading the whole society too. As the people in general were happy under
Bali’s rule, these thinking section amongst the populace had nothing in
their hands left except to fret and fume. These became dejected and felt
that the Vedic culture would no longer survive.

The women the mainstay of the family finding that their children in the
schools were learning to hate the culture they were brought up with, began
organising small discussion groups to think over the developing situation.
By small beginnings, the seeds of revolt were being sown. This small action
has been symbolised as Vamana, the small man.

The woman who spearheaded this movement was Aditi. She gave birth to an
equally brilliant child  Vamana.

He grew into a very lovable and learned man. He saw that Bali’s methods were
very subtle under the cloak of good of the people. He was organising the
state in which atheism was to reign supreme. He was not objecting to the
study of the Vedas or the Upanishads. But who would study them or who would
teach them, when there was no state patronage.  They had simply become lower
grade soldiers in the army. The Vaishyas and the Shudras were the producers
of the wealth. They were also allowed to accumulate it. But they were turned
away from God, the only source of love and fellow-feeling. Wealth and wealth
alone became their God. Thus the source of felow feeling between the
different sections of the society dried up. Cynism and selfishness had a
field day. Vamana by his persuasive language and erudition, organized small
discussion groups where he would impart Vedic education and impress upon
them the necessity of believing in almighty Brahman the source of happiness.
The Vashyas and Shudras extended their patronage to Vamana.

Shukracharya with his perceptive power warned Bali of the increasing
popularity and strength of Vamana. He predicted that if Bali would not curb
the activities of Vamana in time, Vamana would grow from strength and
strength and re establish the supremacy of the Vedas and Bali’s asura way
 the materialistic way) would be destroyed. Bali after all was a good king,
though he had a materialistic streak in him inherited through his descent
from Daitya (Rakshas) lineage.

Vamana grew into a very popular leader. His powerful voice advocated the
supremacy of the Vedas over the secular education. He pointed out that such
education showed total indifference to the values in life. Love which bound
one with the other and which is the mainstay of family and social life, had
no place in Bali’s system of education. Vaman asserted God is love and He is
the source of all that is good in life. However, good the administration if
it is not based on the human values in life viz, love for the fellow being,
respect for the elders and the teachers, enjoying one’s own share in wealth
without covetousness, enjoying works of art etc, that system degenerates
into the rule of the goondas where money and muscle power become the final
arbiters of man'’ destiny.

Bali disregarding the advice of his preceptor Shukracharya invited Vamana
for a dialogue. In fact, according to Shukracharya, Vamana was Vishnu Grihe
grihe vishati iti Vishnuh He who is in the hearts of every householder is
Vishnu. Bali felt, he can win over Vamana by his persuasive power.
Shukracharya like modern Marx and his followers had not the capacity to
understand the Vedic vision of life. Bali was his disciple. But he was a
states man. He saw the large following that Vamana had built up by his
efforts. That following was not that of the mafias or smugglers. It was of
men learned in the Vedas and was led by men whose sole aim was to secure
participation in the administration of state and advocate the human values
as the basis of the state educational system.

But Bali was not able to arrange dialogue with Vamana against the advice of
his preceptor Shukracharya. After all propriety demanded that he would not
go against the wishes of his preceptor. And Shukracharya would not accede to
the proposal of his Emperor, for he clearly saw that dialogue with Vamana
meant undermining Bali’s absolute control over his administration. So, he
tried two age old strategema: (1) Lure of gold or, (2) Vamana’s isolation
from his people by offering him share in political power. Vamana refused to
accept the gold offered to him except on the condition that it would be used
by his organisation. Shukracharya when he learnt of the condition, got wild
and blurted, if you accept it, you would lose your power.

Bali saw that Vamana’s influence was growing day by day. Even his
materialistic followers changed over to Vamana’s side. Bali then used
another strategem to divert the attention of his people  He started a Yajna
and invited Vamana to participate in it. He began his dialogue with Vamana
while Yajna was being performed. Vamana was not after power for himself. He
wanted Bali to allow all the three Varnas the Brahmanas, the Kshtriyas and
the Vaishyas (Shudras were then included in the Vaishya Varna) to
participate in the administration. Bali though he had destroyed the Varna
system by his administrative policy, yet he had not directly banned the
Varna system. He, therefore, felt that this demand is innocuous. He
immediately agreed.

Shukracharya immediately sensed that Vamana had won the battle without
firing a shot and extricated himself from participating in the further
sessions of Bali’s dialogue with Vamana.

The next demand, as a corollory of the first, was to terminate the yajna and
free the Brahmanas from being mere priests interested in the Daxinas. He
stated that it is the Brahmana’s main duty to acquire knowledge and impart
it to those who came to them.

This demand meant that Bali was to uproot the very state education policy
and hand it over back to the Brahmanas. Vamana saw that the Brahmanas had
become sychoptants of Bali because of the lure of the sumptuous Daxina that
Bali gave to them. He wanted to free the Brahmanas from the lure of gold and
regain their former prestige and independence.

Vamana stated that this was his first demand as it just flowed from the
acceptance of the Varna system. Bali had never repudiated it earlier. Bali
agreed.

Vamana’s second demand was that his administrators the Kshtriyas should have
education in human values. They should not be mere secular robots churned
out by the state-universities. This also was conceded by Bali.

The third demand was that the Vaishyas also should have the education in
human values before they engaged themselves in any business or trade. This
was a very important demand. It meant that none hereafter would consider the
profit is the only motive, it means unfair trade practices and fierce
competition or deceipt of the common investors by squandering away people’s
money and declaring their units as sick units.

It will be seen that Bali was not deprived of his political power. He was
compelled to accept the three demands  three steps of Vamana to compel Bali
to completely change his old ways yielding them to Vamana’s way. This
restored human values in all walks of life replacing the materialistic
values.

I have delineated in rather greater detail the importance of this
incarnation, for Baba’s mission is none different from Vamana’s. Baba
started his career as a village urchin and has now grown into a colossus
like Vamana urging the political bossess, to accept his system of education
in human values. He wants to re-establish the Vedas which advocate the
integral vision of life for leading everybody to achieve hid goal of life,
namely happiness.

We have made Bali immortal in the annals of our culture, by assigning him
the most important day of our calender, the first day of the month of
Kartika  Bali Pratipada  the start of Hindu year according to Vikrama Era.

This is also one of our three very auspicious days. This is a tribute by the
Vedic culture to Bali, who by his statesmanship banished theDaitya culture
from our land and made it the Punyabhumi the Holy land for which the God has
developed special affinity to incarnate Himself. We celebrate Diwali for
four days  Naraka Chaturdashi, fourteenth day of the Krishna Paksha (Black
fortnight) of the month of Ashwina on which day Lord Krishna killed the
demon Narak and freed sixteen thousand young princess from his clutches.
This is the first day of Diwali the greatest of the Hindu festivals. The
second day of Diwali is Laxmi-pujan  (worship of the Goddess of wealth). The
Vedic way of life loves both  wealth acquired by Bali as well as his
renunciation of power and wealth. We therefore celebrate the third day as
Bali Pratipada. The last day is Bhau-Bija  the Sister’s day. The brother
goes to his sister’s house on this day and gives her some presents as a
token of love. The sister waves a lamp around him and wishes him a long life
and prosperity.

Bali is the Central figure of this great festival of the Hindus. Bali is the
gift of Vamana, the Lord who had incarnated and taken this form.

Baba has now come to retrieve the balance now being tilted in favour of
atheism all over the world.

The treatment meted out to Bali is a very important lesson to all the
civilized people. It is not enough to talk of love for your opponent. By
your persuasive logic backed by your skill in organizing people to accept
your way of life, you win over the strongest of your opponents, you do not
condemn him or annihilate him. On the other hand you praise him and give him
an honored place in your society. This is a characteristic trait of the
Hindu Vedic mind. Later Shankaracharya won over the Buddhists by his
unparalleled debating skill and strong rational bent of his mind and paved
the way for accepting Buddha as an Avatara by the Hindus. Thus your
strongest opponent is turned into your staunchest supporter. This is because
of the liberal attitude engendered by the Vedic lead in Hindu thought
process. This is a unique contribution, of the Vedas to the world
civilization. The opponent is not vanquished or humiliated. He is persuaded
and accepted as your kith and kin.

This is the objective Baba is set to achieve present times.

Jai Sai Ram

All our thoughts, efforts actions and outcomes are surrendered upon the beautiful lotus feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
In Sai's Love

News Letter Editor
Soma