SAI SUDHA APRIL 1944 ·
EDITORIAL –
ANCIENT PRAYER AND ITS MODERN IMPLICATIONS
ORGANISATION OF SADHUS ·
SRI SAI BABA – A SYMBOL OF UNITY ·
VISION OF REALITY ·
SRI SANKARA JAYANTI MESSAGE ·
VYREE BHAKTI AND SAI BABA ·
EXPERIENCES ·
NEWS AND NOTES
EDITORIAL – AN ANCIENT PRAYER AND ITS MODERN IMPLICATIONS
One of the oldest prayers recorded in our books runs as follows -It can be translated as follows:-
“O -Gods! Let us hear good things with our ears. Let us, continuing to perform sacrifices, see good things with our eyes. Let us continue to praise you, ourselves possessing healthy limbs and let us live the life allotted to us by divine dispensation.”
A few points in the prayer deserve to be gone into more fully. First, the prayer is addressed to Devas (plural and not singular). Scholars would say that this must have been composed at a time when the seers had not arrived at the conception of one God, as the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the universe, but believed in many gods like, Agni, India, Varna. The I consider a minor matter; the thing to be noted is that man is addressing some superhuman power that controls him and the universe in which he finds himself.
Secondly, the person who prays is not a single individual, but Yajatrah; those who perform sacrifice, and raise their voice of prayer for this common benefit. Let us hear, let us see is this prayer and not let me hear, let me see. There are many prayers addressed in the singular may I live long, may I have plenty of wealth, to enjoy. The plural as should have been used deliberately denoting the community as a whole and not the individual. It can hardly be a case of the royal.
Thirdly, the praying, charaterise themselves as performing sacrifices. Life terrestrial and celestial are bound together by sacrifice. Sreemad Bhagavat Gita tells us that the Lord of the Universe after creating addressed humans as follows: -
With this do ye foster Gods and may the Gods in turn foster you; Fostering each other (thus) ye shall gain the Highest Good. This is a square deal and not an one-sided transaction.
Social solidarity is emphasised and no attempt is made by a person caring for his own benefit and trying to steal a march over others. The Gita ideal of conversation of society is anticipated.
Best thinkers of all ages have been aiming at the uplift of society as a whole. A nation is considered to be civilized and prosperous if it stands not a few individual tests, but a few-broad social tests. What is the percentage of literacy among its people, men and women? What diseases have been controlled or eliminated and what is the rate of morality? What is the average of purchasing power of the nation indicative of its average and Rockefellers are there in that nation, or how many Taj Mahals have been built. The test is social, i.e. as a whole and not with reference to a few tall poppies only.
What is the world at present attempting to do on the constructive side? The Atlantic Charter guarantees four freedoms i.e. freedom from want and fear and the freedom of work and worship. Here again the outlook is definitely social and not individualistic.
what about the famous Beveridge Plan in England, of social security for all? It aims at assuring medical help to everybody, occupation and wages to everyone and guarantees freedom from want to every one in England. Here again the ideal aimed at is social uplift and not the prosperity of a few individuals.
Lastly coming to our own country, there is the Fifteen-Year Plan of reconstructions expected to cost an expected to cost an expenditure of 1,000 crores of rupees. It is true that a few British cricis have condemned this as a device of the plutocrats to better their own positions and they point out that the main industry of the country agriculture is not given the attention, it deserves; but this is not disinterested criticism. We see that broadly speaking it aims at raising the standard of life the masses and not at the amelioration of the conditions of a section only of the people of the land.
One thing is common to all these, the Atlantic Charter, the Beveridge Plan and the Bombay Industrialists scheme:- They are all for large section of the World's population are whole and not for small groups and much less for individuals. One who utters a prayer like the Bard who wanted good for me, wealth for me and everything desirable for me would now be laughed out of court.
Let the whole nations once more pray with one voice:
One of the oldest prayers recorded in our books runs as follows -It can be translated as follows:-
“O -Gods! Let us hear good things with our ears. Let us, continuing to perform sacrifices, see good things with our eyes. Let us continue to praise you, ourselves possessing healthy limbs and let us live the life allotted to us by divine dispensation.”
A few points in the prayer deserve to be gone into more fully. First, the prayer is addressed to Devas (plural and not singular). Scholars would say that this must have been composed at a time when the seers had not arrived at the conception of one God, as the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the universe, but believed in many gods like, Agni, India, Varna. The I consider a minor matter; the thing to be noted is that man is addressing some superhuman power that controls him and the universe in which he finds himself.
Secondly, the person who prays is not a single individual, but Yajatrah; those who perform sacrifice, and raise their voice of prayer for this common benefit. Let us hear, let us see is this prayer and not let me hear, let me see. There are many prayers addressed in the singular may I live long, may I have plenty of wealth, to enjoy. The plural as should have been used deliberately denoting the community as a whole and not the individual. It can hardly be a case of the royal.
Thirdly, the praying, charaterise themselves as performing sacrifices. Life terrestrial and celestial are bound together by sacrifice. Sreemad Bhagavat Gita tells us that the Lord of the Universe after creating addressed humans as follows: -
With this do ye foster Gods and may the Gods in turn foster you; Fostering each other (thus) ye shall gain the Highest Good. This is a square deal and not an one-sided transaction.
Social solidarity is emphasised and no attempt is made by a person caring for his own benefit and trying to steal a march over others. The Gita ideal of conversation of society is anticipated.
Best thinkers of all ages have been aiming at the uplift of society as a whole. A nation is considered to be civilized and prosperous if it stands not a few individual tests, but a few-broad social tests. What is the percentage of literacy among its people, men and women? What diseases have been controlled or eliminated and what is the rate of morality? What is the average of purchasing power of the nation indicative of its average and Rockefellers are there in that nation, or how many Taj Mahals have been built. The test is social, i.e. as a whole and not with reference to a few tall poppies only.
What is the world at present attempting to do on the constructive side? The Atlantic Charter guarantees four freedoms i.e. freedom from want and fear and the freedom of work and worship. Here again the outlook is definitely social and not individualistic.
what about the famous Beveridge Plan in England, of social security for all? It aims at assuring medical help to everybody, occupation and wages to everyone and guarantees freedom from want to every one in England. Here again the ideal aimed at is social uplift and not the prosperity of a few individuals.
Lastly coming to our own country, there is the Fifteen-Year Plan of reconstructions expected to cost an expected to cost an expenditure of 1,000 crores of rupees. It is true that a few British cricis have condemned this as a device of the plutocrats to better their own positions and they point out that the main industry of the country agriculture is not given the attention, it deserves; but this is not disinterested criticism. We see that broadly speaking it aims at raising the standard of life the masses and not at the amelioration of the conditions of a section only of the people of the land.
One thing is common to all these, the Atlantic Charter, the Beveridge Plan and the Bombay Industrialists scheme:- They are all for large section of the World's population are whole and not for small groups and much less for individuals. One who utters a prayer like the Bard who wanted good for me, wealth for me and everything desirable for me would now be laughed out of court.
Let the whole nations once more pray with one voice:
(concluded)
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