A list of 6 must-nots from ‘Prasnothara Vahini’

Every thought, word and deed which was not in sync, that was negative, harmful in intent, thoughtless, uncaring, acutely insensitive, horrifyingly arrogant, cruel and abusive to any living being or the minutest part of creation, was indeed an arrow, an arrow towards man’s self-existence.

Every lackadaisical attitude, each action that reeked of kama, krodha, lobha, moha, madha and matsarya was an arrow, a dart, a shaft, a missile, embedded in the lotus-like frame of Beloved Bhagawan, which again is affecting the human existence.

Each arrow had a name on it. Countless arrows’ pierced’ His gentle frame through the flaming orange robe, arrows that came from the creation in its entirety, beyond time and space, yet, He Is unaffected, but not the man with his selfish feelings of ‘me’ and ‘mine’.

Yes, every one of us was responsible for having pierced with toxic arrows and shafts, the benevolent, magnificent and supreme frame of Supreme Godhood as Sri Sathya Sai.

Beloved Bhagawan in His self-scripted human sojourn on earth did the most benevolent blessing on humanity, by scribbling His Own Vahini series, attending to every single human problem, allowing him to rise and soar with conscious evolution.

Bhagawan’s famed ‘Prasnottara Vahini’ thus deals with the most potent of the questions a spiritual aspirant can face, with answers flowing from Sri Sathya Sai HiranyaGarbha. Let’s pay attention to what our Beloved Bhagawan speaks about those venomous and destructive weapons human minds possess.

Q: Swami! What are the traits of character that we have to avoid, that is to say, which are the obstacles in the path of one who seeks liberation from the cycle of Birth and Death?

Ans: The six, the Ari-shadvarga: Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Madha and Matsarya; these are to be avoided.

Q: What exactly is Kama?

Ans: Desire for riches, property, honour, status, fame, children; why list the lot? Attachment to all things of this sensory world – this false, temporary, impure world.

Q: Krodha?

Ans: Yearning to harm others and cause ruin to them.

Q: And Lobha?

Ans: Determination that no one else should partake of even a small fraction of what one has earned or what one has; also, that even in times of distress, one’s possessions should not be diminished by use.

Q: What is the meaning of Moha?

Ans: The delusion that some people are nearer to one than others and the desire to please them more than others, leading to exertions for earning and accumulating for their sake.

Q: Madha?

Ans: Madha means the swagger that develops when one feels that he has either scholarship or strength or riches or fame, more than others. Even when one has not got these, Madha makes men move about without reverence for elders and consideration for others’ feelings and craving only for one’s own comfort and security. Madha is extreme egoism.

Q: The last that You mentioned is Matsarya. What does that mean, Swami?

Ans: When others are as happy as yourself, Matsarya makes one miserable; one cannot tolerate it.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II