Thought for the Day - As written at Prasanthi Nilayam


Thought for the Day Archive  Daily Sai news  -  HOME


February 2005

February 1, 2005

Dedication to the Lord sanctifies all activities. He is the goal of all activities. He is the prompter, executor, giver of the required strength and skill and the enjoyer of the fruit thereof. So, dedication must come naturally to you, for, all is His and nothing belongs to you. Your duty is to believe that He is the impeller of all activities, and draw strength from that belief.

February 2, 2005

Birth as a human being is a rare and unique opportunity. For, man is endowed with a discriminating intelligence, the power to reason out the best among alternative courses of action. The tongue that does not chant the name of God, the hand that knows no charity, the years of life that know no peace of mind, talents that do not find fulfillment, a life that has not garnered wisdom, a temple where there is no atmosphere of reverence, speech that does not communicate knowledge - all these are of no worth.

February 3, 2005
One should not undertake to analyse the good and bad in others. If we use our eyes for finding faults in others and spend all our time in this process, our heart will also become impure and we will develop bad thoughts. The heart is like a camera lens. The object on which we concentrate our attention gets imprinted on the mind. Hence, we should make an attempt to perceive the good in whatever we see.

February 4, 2005

One may ask, if God is controlling everything, what is the need for human effort? Yes, God is all powerful. But at the same time human effort is also necessary, for without it man cannot enjoy the benefit of God's grace. It is only when you have both Divine grace and human endeavour that you can experience bliss, just as you can enjoy the breeze of a fan only when you have both a fan and electric power to operate it.

February 5, 2005

You have to remove wicked thoughts from your heart, plough the heart with good deeds, water it with love, manure it with faith, plant the saplings of the name of the Lord and fence the field with discipline, destroy pests with Shraddha (dedication) and reap the harvest of Jnana (wisdom). Understand that God is in you, with you and around you. In fact, you are God.

February 6, 2005

Envy and greed emanate from the ego and have to be carefully watched and controlled. Like the tadpole's tail, the ego will fall away when one grows in wisdom. It must fall away; if it is cut, the poor tadpole will die. So, don't worry about the ego; develop wisdom, contemplate on the ephemeral nature of the objective world. Then the tail of the ego will no longer be evident.

February 7, 2005

Buddhi (intellect) is superior amongst all the faculties that a human is endowed with. Its pre-eminence is due to its proximity to the Atman (soul) whereby the brilliance of the Atman directly falls on it and energizes it. The Buddhi should exercise its control over the mind, and in turn, the mind over the senses. But what happens generally is that the Buddhi does not exercise discrimination; the mind arrogates to itself superiority over the intellect and the senses arrogate to themselves superiority over the mind. Consequently, the mind proceeds in the wrong direction and the purpose of life remains unfulfilled. To avoid this, the Buddhi has to be centered on the Atman and the mind should act in subordination to Buddhi.

February 8, 2005

To realize God, it is not necessary to have wealth, gold, luxuries and comforts; nor is scholarship a requisite. All that is needed is pure devotion. Without purity of thought, word and deed, it is impossible to experience the Divine. God cannot be realized through ostentation and self-conceit. The basic requisite is the shedding of selfishness and possessiveness so that one can engage oneself in actions in a disinterested spirit. Any person is entitled to embark on this quest irrespective of age, caste or gender.

February 9, 2005

Without having unwavering faith in an omniscient and omnipotent God, life becomes dry and drab, shadowed by despair and doom. Love for God and fear of sin are the two primary needs for a happy life. Without these two, man becomes a monster. Man must be ever ready to sacrifice his selfish concerns for the sake of the larger community. There is nothing as praiseworthy as renunciation. Be honest and detached; and with God installed in your heart, march forward to offer your skills and talents towards fulfilling your responsibilities.

February 10, 2005

There is Divinity immanent in humanity. Understand this. Today every sphere of human activity is polluted. Once man purifies his heart, he will find purity everywhere. The world outside is just a reflection of your heart. If you fill your heart with love, you will experience love everywhere. If there is hatred in your heart, the same will get reflected outside. All that you see, hear and experience outside is only the reflection, reaction and resound of your inner being. Hence, it is incorrect to point out the faults and shortcomings in others.

February 11, 2005

God certainly listens to the prayers of His devotees. Some people hesitate to pray lest their prayers should cause inconvenience to God. They are mistaken in their belief, for God can never be put to any inconvenience whatsoever. God has no suffering at all. He considers the devotee's happiness as His happiness.

February 12, 2005

Anxiety is removed by placing one's faith in the Lord; the faith that tells you that whatever happens is for the best and that the Lord's will be done. Unquestioning acceptance is the best armour against anxiety. Sorrow springs from egoism, the feeling that one does not deserve to be treated so badly, that one is left helpless. When egoism goes, sorrow disappears. Ignorance is just the mistaken identity of the body as one's real self.

February 13, 2005

If an individual wants to attain success in his life, he should have three good qualities in him. The first is to have firm and unwavering faith in the need for being good. The second is to be free from hatred, jealousy and ego. The third is to be able to appreciate and enjoy when he sees another individual or the society around him doing good work. It is through these three qualities that a person's greatness will come to be known.

February 14, 2005

In Creation, no one object is like another. No two humans are similar, for each has his own peculiar experiences. Why, even the same individual keeps changing with time as he passes through infancy, youth, middle-age and finally senility. Man must seek refuge in the changeless Paramatman (God) from which all diversity emerges and into which it merges. Only then can man secure lasting peace and contentment.

February 15, 2005

The greater the number of desires, the lesser the happiness you will experience. Be contented. A discontented man loses everything; only the contented man can experience real joy. The happiness in one's life will be in inverse proportion to one's desires. In the journey of life, as in a railway journey, the lesser the luggage (desires) one carries, the greater the comfort.

February 16, 2005

He who considers himself free is free indeed, and he who considers himself bound remains bound. Constantly think yourself as being eternal, unlimited, Consciousness-Bliss, and you will be free and happy. So long as you trap yourself in body consciousness you are like a lion moping about in a musty cave. Do not feel satisfied by saying, 'I am the body'. Roar and say, 'I am the Universal Absolute. I am all that is, was and will be.' Pettiness, ego, time and space - all will flee from your heart and you will realise your own Divinity.

February 17, 2005

Man has not taken birth merely to satisfy his mundane desires; he has come to manifest the Divinity latent in him. That is why he is called vyakthi (individual)- he who makes vyaktha (manifest) the Shakthi (Divine power) that is in him. For this purpose he has come endowed with this body, and the intelligence needed to control it and divert it to useful channels of activity. Every man must achieve this goal by Dharmanishttha and Karmanishttha - the steady pursuit of morality and good deeds.

February 18, 2005

You should cultivate an attitude of inseparable attachment to the Lord, who is your very self. If He is a flower, you should feel that you are the bee that sucks the nectar from it; if He is a tree, be a creeper that clings to it; if He be a cliff, then feel that you are a cascade running over it; if He is the sky, be a tiny star that twinkles in it; above all, be conscious of the truth that you and He are bound by Supreme Love. If you feel this acutely, the journey will be quick and the goal can be won easily.

February 19, 2005

God is the great Unseen, the vast Unknowable. Though you do not see the roots or know how deep inside the earth they are, you pour water round the trunk, so that it may reach them. You expect that the roots will absorb the water and the tree will grow and yield fruit. Recognise that similarly there is God as the very basis of Creation; pray to Him, and He will shower fruit.

February 20, 2005

Never use foul words against another. Such words should never defile your tongue. Remember that there is God inside your heart, as well as in the hearts of everyone around you. He sees and hears everything. When you use harsh, cruel, angry and foul words against another, the God in you and the God in the other person is hurt. The tongue is a tool with which you can harm yourself and others too. So, be very careful; use it only for your good and for the good of others. The best way to use it is by speaking kind words, repeating the Name of God and singing His Glory.

February 21, 2005

Be thankful to the Lord that He gave you Time, as well as action to fill it with. He gave you food, as well as hunger to relish it. But, that does not entitle you to engage yourself in action without discrimination. When you build a house, you install a door in front to admit all who are welcome and keep out those are not. You do not keep the doors wide open for all and sundry to come in as and when they please. Similarly, screen the impulses and motives that enter your mind; keep out the demeaning, the debasing, the deleterious. Admit only the highest wisdom of the scriptures, the wisdom culled out of the crucible of the experience of the ancient sages.

February 22, 2005

The dualistic attitude of man is born out of a mistaken sense of separateness. Man should realise his inherent divinity and get rid of the delusion of taking his body to be his true Self. The body is only an instrument for realising the Self. No great scholarship is needed for achieving this realisation. The attitude of surrender to the Divine, dedicating all thoughts, words and actions as an offering to the Divine will lead to Self-realisation. The bliss one experiences in that state is beyond description.

February 23, 2005

Whatever the troubles you face, whatever the ordeals you encounter, you should not allow your faith in God to weaken to the slightest extent. You must learn a lesson from the Chataka bird. There may be terrible thunder and blinding lightning in the sky, but the Chataka bird will follow the cloud to catch the raindrops in the sky and will not go to any other source for water. Nothing less than the pure raindrops from the cloud will satisfy the Chataka. Likewise, you should yearn always for the bliss of God's proximity, whatever difficulties or joys you may experience in life.

February 24, 2005

Sadhana (spiritual discipline) determines the character of a person and character in turn determines one's destiny. Character is cultivated by performing good actions. Actions are based on one's thoughts and intentions. Whenever any thought arises in the mind, one should examine whether it is right or wrong, whether it will benefit society or cause harm. Actions should be based on such enquiry. It is wrong to blame anyone for our misfortunes. Our thoughts and actions alone are responsible for our plight. If one entertains pure thoughts and does all actions with firm faith in God, one will be favoured with God's Grace.

February 25, 2005

When a river reaches the ocean, it becomes one with the ocean and the river ceases to exist. Before it joins the ocean, the river is bound by its banks and it has a distinct form. But when it merges in the ocean, it loses its form, name and taste. Likewise, when "man" merges in the Infinite "I" only the Infinite "I" remains and the limited human entity disappears.

February 26, 2005

Man is a prisoner of his senses as long as the feelings of 'I' and 'mine' remain. Man strays into misery and pain, because he aspires for the temporary and the trivial. He ignores the voice of God that warns and guides from within, and pays the penalty for the transgression. Life is to be dedicated not to mere food and drink and catering to the cravings of the senses. It has to be devoted to the attainment of the bliss that God alone can confer.

February 27, 2005

The mind must become the servant of the intellect, not the slave of the senses. It must discriminate and detach itself from identification with the body. The kernel of the ripe tamarind fruit is not attached to the outer shell; likewise the mind must be unattached to this shell called the body. Strike an unripe tamarind fruit with a stone and you cause harm to the pulp inside; but, when you strike the ripe fruit it is the dry rind that falls off; nothing affects the pulp or the seed. The mature aspirant does not feel the blows of fate or fortune; it is the unripe one who is wounded by every blow.

February 28, 2005

Wherever there is a vacuum in any heart, love flows into it and is glad that it can fill the emptiness. It is never held back; it is offered in abundance without guile or deceit. It does not wear the cloak of falsehood, flattery or fear. The tendrils of love aspire to cling only to the garments of God. It senses that God resides in His splendour in every heart. To discover that seat of God is real devotion.


 

Online source: Radio Sai Global