Ekagrata is the one-pointedness of the mind when the devotee gives his undivided attention to the Lord’s annunciation. To be initiated into the esoteric spirit of the Bhagavad Gita the Saranagata must also possess the qualities of selfless love and sacrifice. (SSB 1979, p. 108)
The minimum qualifications for every profession are prescribed so the minimum qualification for Grace is surrender of Ego. (SV90, p. 91)
A spiritual organisation is really above all rules and regulations; the relam of the Self is beyond the limits of regulations. In this sense rules are either meaningless or superfluous in Sathya Sai organisations: But at least, to satisfy the law of the land dealing with associations of this kind, some rules have to be adopted. For example, who can be members of these organisations and what are their qualifications?
- Of course, they must be eager aspirants for spiritual progress.
- They must have full faith in the Name that the Organisation bears and in spreading that Name, in the manner suited to Its Message and Majesty
- Besides; the member must have won recognition as a good person.
That is all the qualification needed; nothing else counts. There is no need to have money or lands or scholarship, influence or authority or official position If you have the three qualification mentioned, I assure you, even if you have no place in any organisation bearing My Name you will have a place here (Baba indicated His Heart as the place where they will be accepted. The organisations must be such that member find their congenial places to deeper their spiritual discipline, to cultivate their virtues and to overcome their ego; by contact with workers who are free from the least trace of that deadly poison. If this is achieved, their success is certain. (Sens.SS, p. 7)
It is hard to grasp the meanings of the aphorisms contained in the Brahma sutra. Unless one has acquired the necessary qualifications; one cannot unravel them a master them. What, then are the qualifications? Four Sadhanas are laid down in Scriptures. When one is equipped with these four, the meanings become as patent as a fruit on the palm. For, these four have to be earned by man as a preliminary for knowing the truth of one self. Among the preliminary qualifications for Brahma jijnasa, the first is ‘Viveka’, discrimination between the transitory and the eternal. In other words, the discovery that Atma alone is beyond Time, and that all objects perceivable by the senses of sight etc, are only transitory. The Atma alone suffers no change. It alone is Nitya Satya (Timeless Truth). As a result of prolonged investigation one has to gain this unshakable conviction and be established in it.
The second qualification is iha-amutra-phalabhoga-viragah (renunciation of the desire to enjoy here and hereafter, the fruits of one’s actions). This is also known as Vairagya (non-attachment). One must reason and realise the transitoriness of joy and grief, pollutions that affect the mind. One will be convinced that all things are caught in a flux; they are all momentary, they yield only grief. The feeling of non-attachment will next dawn in the mind. Vairagya does not involve giving up of health and home or wife and children and taking refuge in forests. It involves only the awareness of the jagat (world) as transitory and as a consequence of this awareness, discarding the feelings ‘I’ and ‘Mine’.
The third qualification is Samadamadi shatguna sampath, the group of six virtues, sama, dama, uparati, titiksha, sraddha and samadhana. The fourth qualification is Mumukshutvam, the longing for Moksha or Liberation. The longing cannot arise from either riches or from the scholarship that may be won at great expense of money..... Success in the path of knowledge alone can confer salvation. (Sutra Vahini, pp. 7-14)