"No Mind" State

 

When President Abdul Kalam was to visit Swami, he wrote a letter in which he asked Swami not to put a chair in the verandah for him.  He stated that he wanted to sit on the ground along with other devotees, because he was visiting in the capacity of a devotee, not as the President of India.  This is an instance of what is called "no mind" state.  This is the state of a mastermind.  This is called the annihilation of the mind and the ego.

Swami also told us about the evening stroll that President Kalam took around Prasanthi Nilayam.  The police could not keep pace with him.  He went on saying  "Sai Ram, Sai Ram" to everyone there in the sheds.  When he came inside the Sai Kulwant Hall, he said to the police "Please go away.  Let me see the hall - how beautiful it is."  This then, is a no-mind.  Not once did he flaunt his power and position.

So one has to forget one's qualifications, status and influence and feel that we are nothing.  As long as we feel that we are "something", the situation is incorrigible.  An attitude of "I am nothing in front of God" is the true egoless state.

On his return to Delhi, the President wrote a letter of thanks in which he told Bhagavan, "It is only in Prasanthi Nilayam that I experienced the highest peace of mind.  Only there - nowhere else."

Then there is the gesture of Army General Padamanabhan, the then Chief of the Indian Army.  He came to see Bhagawan and requested for a simple job in Prasanthi Nilayam after his retirement.

To feel that "I am nobody" is the state of the mastermind.  We see Swami helping a sick person to walk to the dais.  He assists a person holding his hand and directing him into the interview room.

God is not a position or a status.  Indeed, God is a quality of life, not a commodity.  Further, God is not a person.  If that were so, we will want to influence and manage Him.  When we think of God as an object, we want to possess Him.  Hence, one cannot possess, acquire or manipulate or own or disown God because all said and done, we are God.  That is the simple truth.

Therefore, God is not a goal but God is a pilgrimage.  God is a journey.

It is our prayer to Bhagawan to help us to master our minds.  We do not know what havoc our mind is creating.  We may not know how bad we have become because of our identification with the mind.  We do not know how egoistic we have become, how restless, how frustrated we are, because of the mind.

We pray to Bhagawan to help us to know the stumbling blocks - that "iron curtain" of the mind.  We pray to the Lord to break it, to cut it off, so that we will be totally humble, completely egoless, all-loving, all-surrendering unto the Lotus Feet of the Lord.

(From the book "Sai-Chology" by Prof. K. Anil Kumar)