Looking at ourselves through His Eyes

Indeed each one of us are eternally grateful, thankful, feel blessed and what not for having been seen, touched, spoken to by our Master. We recollect with nostalgia, we cherish those moments in camaraderie, we relive the events, every minute of it in solitude and this truly is our way of keeping our spirits connected to our Master.

Troubled times gives rise to a new sense of purpose. It infuses in us a renewed vigour and zeal to live life larger, broader and more selfless. Our spirits gush forth into unparalelled actions of sacrifice, care, compassion, support and service to fellow brothers and sisters. Floods in Kerala and Chennai and marching back home-wards thousands of miles away on foot by the deserted, forgotten, neglected folk whom we shamelessly called as migrants. [Honestly speaking, we are the true migrants, who have migrated away from our basic humanness and living lives eternally worried about our own securities and selfish welfare.] And the ongoing pandemic created by a man-made virus, an infinitesimal being that is bringing down the tribe that considers itself to be infallible. Each of these disastrous events and situations bring forth a new energy from within us to serve society. We band ourselves with names and taglines, call ourselves as Sai Sevaks, Sai Students and plunge into action and this truly is our way of keeping our bodies connected to our Master.

While the British did leave us physically about 74 years ago, their shadows continue to occupy our minds, our intellects, our streets and screens, our passtimes and playgrounds and our clothing and customs. They have entrenched our lives through our language, food, mannerisms and even belief systems. Thanks to the effort of numerous intellectual martyrs, audacious men and women who wrote boldly, spoke unrivalled even on foriegn lands, we continue to live with hope and expectation that the re-dawn of the Intellectual geniosity and Atmic flarings is on the horizon. We involve ourselves in reading the life and literature of our Master. We clarify and drive away the inheritted failings and mis-conceptions. We organize events to read collectively, to hear each-other, to regain our lost pride in the words of our very own civilizational supreme sanyasins. We sing, dance, recite, chant His Name, Message and Descriptions. This is our way of truly keeping our minds connected to our Master.

This and more will not get us any farther than where we are already today. We continue to label ourselves, we continue to live two lives, we continue to live our limited lives of insecurity, we continue to react to societal misgivings and failures, we continue to worry of being politically correct and so on. If we, the ocean of humanity, that has been touched by our Master through his tireless days and nights, are to realise the gift of the blessings bestowed upon, then we have to turnaround.

We have to turn ourselves around and begin to look at ourselves, each other, through the eyes of our Master.

While each one of us consider him to be our Master, what did HE consider us to be.

While each one of us revered HIM with utmost sanctity and fervour, how did HE conduct himself with us.

Seeing through His eyes will give us the answers. He addressed us ‘Embodiments of Love’. He hailed us as ‘Children of Immortality – Amrutasya Putraaha’. He treated us as His equals. He identified with each one of us inside-out, as Divine Souls wearing temporary vestures. Just as we identify and adore temples basis the diety it enshrines and not its majestic architecture.

It was not authority, incentives, compulsions or hysteria that brought forth people in such massive numbers from across the world to His presence. Every other gathering of that numbers is either ticketed, incentivised or driven by an agenda. But the gathering in His presence was to establish an equation of oneness, to assert with firm conviction about each of our identity being truly Divine.

So long as we continue to look at ourselves like we have always been, it will result in our lives being an endless journey in defending and securing our insecurities. House from rain and shine, fixed deposits and insurance from unanticipated expenditure, jobs and marriage from soceital expectations, associations and affiliations from self image, external perceptions and relationship based demands. These efforts tangle and entangle us endlessly in myriad streams of actions driven by mistaken notions such as – us against the rest, family against the community, community against the state, state against the nation and nation against the world and so on.

The message of the Avatric descenent will be dishounoured if we continue to look at ourselves like we have always been and thus live through years and decades in its futile safekeeping. Our lives can only be an expression of our indentity. As is our identity so is our life lived.

To truly honour the message of our Master, we need to look at ourselves through His eyes and then live a life that truly reckons that understanding. What such a kind of life will look like, what such a kind of living be like is for each one of us to discover. Our identity fosters our actions and thus the life we live. It guides our everyday decision making. A soldier is never afraid of dying. What is more concerning for the soldier is the reason, the cause for which he/she is putting his/her life at stake. The reason, cause, belief is the source for the springs of life.

Thinking of oneself to be a Bharatiya everyday gives rise to the vision of a different goal post and the pathways to fulfill the same. Thinking of ourselves to be a successful professional, will guide our life-efforts accordingly. As is our identity so is our life ahead.

Looking at ourselves through His eyes, is needed for us to truly live our lives and stay connected with our Master in Spirit, Body and Mind.