You are from Prasanthi Nilayam!

“Where are you from?” Bhagawan once asked a devotee whom He had chosen for an interview: The devotee was startled. He has been coming to Puttaparthi for many years and staying there for a few weeks every time. Bhagawan used to accost him not by his name but by the name of his country he belonged to, Gautemala. So, the devotee gave the usual answer, “Guatemala!” Bhagawan’s response was significant. “No! You should say, “Prasanthi Nilayam!” The devotee was immensely happy with this remark of Bhagawan which he took as an act of Grace! “Does Swami mean that I will stay in Prasanthi Nilayam for the rest of life?” He wondered, hopefully!

Perhaps, this is the answer Bhagawan expects to get from all of us. We must learn to have the courage, the confidence and wisdom to declare with our hands on our heart that we are from Prasanthi Nilayam. That is the permanent residential address of human beings at all times and in all climes, whether they are aware of it or not.

Prasanthi Nilayam is not that piece of land near the village of Puttaparthi in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh. It is not an entity related to place and time. It is the abode from where all of us have come. It is the name for that state of the source where there is eternal peace because it is Sath-Chith-Ananda, Truth, Awareness, Bliss. That is our home from which we have migrated through aeons, through several incarnations in multifarious frames. We have forgotten that home. We believe that we are what we think we are, and give wrong addresses to each other. We have come to believe that we are the body-mind complex with a name and form.

The Prasanthi Nilayam that Bhagawan mentioned to the devotee from Guatemala is not a stone and mortar structure, as He has so often reminded us. He is not really resident in that building. The Prasanthi Nilayam where He resides is our heart. Infact, He has advised us to make our heart a Prasanthi Nilayam, to enable Him to make it His residence.

The most compassionate Avatar of the age teaches us to make our heart the Prasanthi Nilayam. The first step to discover the cause of our plight. The prayer Bhagawan prescribed for the Sri Sathya Sai Educational Institutions has in it the secred for gaining Prasanthi:

Asatho maa sadh gamaya
Thamaso maa jyothir gamaya
Mrithyor maa amrutham gamaya.

Lead us from untruth to truth,
Lead us from darkness to light,
Lead us from death to immortality!

Om Shanthi! Shanthi! Shanthi! If we learn to discriminate between asath and sath, between darkness and light, between the transient and the eternal, if we can recognize the immortal amidst the mortal and the dying, we have learnt the secret of peace. What we obtain when we have realized the meaning of this manthram is Shaanthi.

That is the Prasanthi Nilayam which Bhagawan wants all of us to reach and realise.