study circle

Session 3

“The hub is calm, steady, unmoved. But the mind will be dragged along the spokes, the objective desires, to revolve over mud and stones. It will not believe that it can get bliss from the centre, rather than from the circumference, without undergoing a rough journey over turbulent terrain.
Go to the centre of the cyclone, to the rod in the centre of the grinding stone; you will not be affected by the pressures, or by what goes on around you; I am where stillness and silence are, to help you to establish yourselves in yourselves.
No matter where you go, always know that I will be there, inside you guiding every step of the way. You are My very, very own, dearer than dear to Me. I will protect you as the eyelids protect the eyes.”
--- Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai

Notes:

In these words Bhagavan seeks to confirm that He is none other than the Atman residing inside each one of us. He also assures us of His protection, provided we constantly stay tuned to Him, and do not get carried away by the external world and its false enticements and fall prey to the accompanying turbulance around us. He gives three examples to clarify this assurance of His and what we should do, to become eligible to enjoy His guidance and protection.

We are all familiar with the working of a wheel. The central hub or nave of a wheel, though it has to move, does so smoothly around the central axle or arbor. The axle itself does not move and can be taken as to represent the Atman, but without that the wheel cannot function. The axle itself is an extension of the axle-tree whis is equivalent to the Universal Consciousness. We know what will happen if the wheel comes off the axle, only a disaster! A human being living wihout the knowledge of the Atman, present within him, is bound to get involved in, and affected by, trials and tribulations in life at some stage or the other, and succumb to them.. Even if he is aware of the Atman, but does not cling to It, and surrender to It, he is bound to suffer. Just like the hub of the wheel has to be well greased for smooth rotation, and fixed with a linchpin to avoid disaster, man must attach himself to the Atman with his mind, and consciously remain so, even when he is engaged in action. He should position himself like the hub and lead his life, which will then be smooth and hazard free. Clay can be shaped into a pretty and smooth pot only in the centre of the potter’s wheel and not at the periphery.Unfortunately man’s mind always tends to move along the spokes of the wheel to position itself on the rim or felloe of the wheel. It does not realize that it is the rim that has to tumble over stones and rubble or sink in sand or get bogged in mud. Hence Swami advises us to control the mind from flowing along the spokes towards sense objects, but position ourselves in the hub!

In the second analogy Swami talks of the cyclone. All of us are familiar with the satellite picture of an impending cyclone, published by meteorological stations. In the centre of the ominous looking spiralling clouds can be seen a dark spot. While tremendous air pressure is building up all around, this centre is calm. This spot represents the Atman in us which is free from and unaffected by the tumultuous situations outside. Swami advises us to position ourselves in the centre of the storm, to remain attached to the Atman, so that we are not affeccted by the pressures and by what goes on around us. The third analogy given by Swami is equally illustrative. In olden days when electric grinders were not in vogue, and even today in Indian villages, women use grinding stones for preparing flour out of rice or wheat. It is a two piece stone gadget, where the bottom stone has on its centre a fixed wooden peg. The upper stone has a handle and a central hole to fit on the peg of the lower stone. When the grains are fed into the central hole and the upper stone is rotated the grains slowly move out between the two stones and get ground into flour. Of the grains fed into the grinder, those which remain close to the central peg will escape the crushing. Swami uses this simple illustration to clarify that when we live closely tuned to the Atman inside us, we can escape from the difficuties and sorrows of life. This does not mean that in life, difficult situations will not arise at all. But when they do come up we will not be affected by them. Life, like the hub of the wheel, will go on smoothly.

In these illustrations Swami confirms that He is none other than our own Atman and tells us that He is always present at the centre, where silence and stillness prevail. By this He indicates that only when we maitain silence and stillness we will be able to feel His presence inside us. Silence of course does not mean only verbal silence. It means mental stillness, because we all know that even when we are verbally silent, our mind goes on chattering inside. Once we achieve that state of mental stillness our attention automatically turns to and rests on the Atman inside. In all the three illustrations, when Swami is talking of the centre, it should not be construed that the Atman resides at some point, in the centre of our body. It is only a symbolic location to enable the mind to rest on some point in the body. It should be clear that the Atman is present in every cell of the body.

Swami, as the permanent resident of our body, assures us that from there He will be activating us and leading every step of ours on the right path. Wherever we go physically, He is there always and we cannot escape from His hold! Why is He so much interested in us? Because He says that we are part of Him and are His exclusive property! We are dearer than the dearest to Him! So He is constantly protecting us like the eyelids protect the eyes. What a pity that most of us live without the knowledge of His benevolent presence inside us!
(To be continued)