The fruit and the tree

4 February 1973, Chennai

Professor Kasturi's English.

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is the most ancient of all the centres of civilisation that is surviving today with her heritage intact. But, out of a false sense of values, the leaders and the youth of the land are ignoring the traditions of this precious culture, and are adopting the ideas and ideals of the West. Therefore, they identify themselves with the body they spend their energies and skills in catering to its needs and whims, and they believe that the material world is the only field 'for study and subjugation.' The result has been here as everywhere else, as even, in the most advanced Western Countries, fear, anxiety violence, corruption and pollution. Physical comfort, individual advancement, personal progress, these are held to be desirable. However, though each person might declare that he cares for himself only, no one can live in isolation. Persons, sleeping on the same cot are caught having different dreams; each one has an inner life of his own, his own path and speed. But ask him why he is engaged in work, what he is bringing from the shop, why he looks worried. The reply would be that he was engaged in building a house for his family, that he was purchasing clothes for his children, that he was worried about his wife. So he is living, not for himself, but for others whom he is attached to, who are his near and dear ones. Man is under an inescapable obligation to shape his activities and attitudes in consonance with those of others, amidst whom he is placed. He is given parents to revere and obey; brothers and sisters to love and learn with; playmates to mix and move with; society to be changed by and to change. His affection and attachment are attracted by others, and his reactions are determined by others.

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Loyalty to society is essential for man The individual's fulfilment, in the joy of liberation, is undoubtedly, the fruit of the tree of humanity. But, when you yearn for the fruit, you cannot neglect the roots, the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the buds and the blossoms of the tree; they all help the fruit to manifest and to be filled with sweetness. When Pakisthan invaded India last year, their armies did not attack ; but, yet did you not rush forward to teach them a good lesson? Attachment to the nation, affection to the language, reverence to religion and loyalty to Society are all essential. They are all facets of the overwhelming sense of gratitude one feels for all that has shaped one. Each such loyalty, instead of running counter to another, must feed and foster all the rest. Then they are most desirable.

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Love is the secret source of all sympathy The world is one vast Society. Every individual in it is part of this Society, bound to it by the love that draws man to man, to be kith and kin. This love is there, deep in the heart of man. Only, it is unrecognised, ignored, doubted, denied, argued away. It is the secret source of all sympathy, and Service; it creates the urge to live in and for Society.. It is the , that flows from One spark of the Divine to all sparks. When the eyes shine illumined by the highest wisdom, , they see all as the One. Man realises that (All is pervaded by ) (all that is apparently changing and transforming and moving). To have this One revealed as in All, one has to develop faith and discipline the mind. The mind has to shed its fancies and foibles; the Truth has to be known and experienced. Learning things by heart will result in only heartache. Learning or verses can only help you from not being engaged in anything worse during that time. They cannot take you an inch nearer the goal. How can mastery of the map equal the joy of the journey? Faith is an individual asset; it is acquired and preserved by one's own efforts. , the Thamil sage, used to say, "You have the freedom to say No; I have the right to say Yes." What he meant was, when one denies or asserts a thing, it is the outcome of his experience. How can any one dispute the experience of another? God may not exist in the horizon of your experience, but he has already risen in mine - that is what the thiest tells the atheist. The time indicated by the watch on his own wrist is the correct time for him and he asserts so, though others might not agree. And, he has the freedom to do so. Have faith; do not allow it to shake, because some one else has no faith. Until you realise that you are Divine, that God is your Core and Reality, you will have to undergo these entrances and exists; the same newspaper should not be pored over again and again, day after day; one life must be enough to know the mystery. So, at least, recognise that there is a mystery, search for the secret, and unravel it for yourself.

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Yearn for the ecstasy of Divine Mother's vision used to cry in agony at the loss of another day, without the vision of the Divine Mother. Have that yearning; feel that sense of urgency: Seek to know now, yearn for that ecstasy this moment. Do not postpone or spend time in discussing others. Trying to satisfy the sense is a dreary desert path. Do not imitate other nations, and compete with other cultures in external pomp. Yours is a mind, intelligence, ear and eye shaped by Indian tradition and culture, Indian history and (eternal religion). Move along those lines and success is certain. You may have only a picture of before you, or an image in metal or an idol in stone. But, if you have the faith that He is alive and present in it, and that He is in your heart and the hearts of all beings, then, you can get the ecstasy of that knowledge, the knowledge that He is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. While meditating, first imagine and feel that you are in the Light, then, gradually, you can feel the Light is in you, not outside you; and finally, you will realise the Truth, that You and the Light are One and will ever be One. The Divine is a wine, that would intoxicate you. It is produced by the nectar that the Name of the Lord is saturated in. Taste it and you forget everything else; you are transformed. Man is, they say, a monkey that has lost its tail; well, he must lose many more attributes of the monkey before he is entitled to call himself man. He must dedicate his thoughts, words and deeds to God, and surrender to His Will. Then only is this animal entitled to become a Man, in whom the Divine is enshrined.