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Thought for the Day - As written at Prasanthi Nilayam
Thought for the Day Archive
January 2003
01 January 2003
Steady faith alone can earn victory. You cannot be changing your
allegiance as and when you please. Hold fast until the realization is
awarded. Faith can work wonders. It can compel the Lord to manifest
himself and give you what you believe he will give you. The Faith can come
only slowly by association with the Godly, by reading the lives and
experiences of godly persons and by gaining experience oneself.
02 January 2003
An individual who has faith in God must put his faith into practice. By
believe in in God and yet ignoring God's utterances and commands, you are
contradicting yourselves. Faith is not a cloak that is worn outside for
deceiving others. Do not waver or doubt once you are convinced. Seek to
understand and satisfy yourself. After that, do not be mislead. When the
sun is over your head, there will be no shadow; similarly when faith is
steady in your head, it should not cast any shadow of doubt. Faith in God
is the secure foundation on which hope has to be built. The faith has to
be stable and strong. The feeling that God will come to our rescue has to
be vivid and vital, motivating and activating all that we do or speak or
think.
03 January 2003
Rely on the Lord within and discover inexhaustible reinforcements of
courage within each heart. The final victory is for those who have faith
in the invincible atma, their reality. Whoever has the enthusiasm, the
steadfastness and the determination to reach the goal will certainly
succeed. Cultivate that faith in ultimate success. Never despair or fault
or doubt. That is my advice to one and all.
04 January 2003
Without self-confidence no achievement is possible. If you have confidence
in your strength and skill, you can draw upon the inner springs of courage
and raise yourselves to a higher level of joy and peace. For confidence in
yourselves arises through the atma, which is your inner reality. The atma
is peace it is joy, it is strength, it is wisdom, so it is from the atma
(Soul) that you draw these equipments for spiritual progress. The first
thing you have to do is develop self-confidence in people who have no
confidence in their own self and who begin to wander about and to waver
and to take to various different paths.
05 January 2003
Don't deny the validity of your own experience. Stand on your strength, be
unmoved either by adulation or denigration. Follow my lead. I am
unaffected by either. I march on alone undeterred and of my own accord. I
am my own guide and witness, have full faith in this. Self-confidence is
the basis of faith in God also. People who do not know who they are and
who have no confidence in their own strength and power assert that there
is no God. But how can they declare that the God in whom you believe and
who exists for you does not exist?
06 January 2003
Everyone has the right to earn grace, but those like Ramakrishna who have
faith in themselves, will earn it soon and plentifully. God loves those
who have the self-confidence and the courage of conviction and who seize
every opportunity to improve their spiritual status. Your self is God. You
have faith in your judgment, your intelligence, your ability, because God
within tells you not to falter and fear. That assurance from within, from
your basic truth, which is otherwise called God. It does not matter if you
do not call it God, it is enough if you believe in yourself. That is the
real test of theism.
07 January 2003
In order to cleanse and achieve the purification of yourself, you have to
control your sight, your tongue and your senses to some extent. As a
prelude to your doing something wrong or something unworthy, there will
have been an initial action by which your eyes must have seen something
bad, or you must have gone through an experience which will have made your
mind wander and get excited. This is the way by which one becomes mad all
through one's life. If you, the youth of today, take great care that your
sight does not become impure, that your hearing does not become impure,
that your words do not become impure, then you will be able to attain
purity of mind and purity of thought.
08 January 2003
Today we know that there is a material world in which there are all kinds
of material attractions. We think that because of the existence of those
attractions, we are having pleasure and happiness. It is not so. So long
as these material desires and material attractions do no reach your eyes,
do not reach your ears and you do not participate in them, they cannot
affect you in the least. Faith is a plant of slow growth, its roots go
deep into the heart. Silence is the best sadhana to guard faith.
09 January 2003
No one has the right to advise others unless he is already practicing what
he preaches. First, establish the reign of love between the various
members of your own home. Let the family become a center of harmonious
living, sympathetic understanding and mutual faith. The holy duty of man
is to be ever aware of the Atman that is installed in every living being.
This will make him conscious of the kinshiphe has with all. This is the
basis of the brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God.
10 January 2003
Whoever has the enthusiasm, the steadfastness and the determination to
reach the goal will certainly succeed. Cultivate that faith in ultimate
success; never despair or fault or doubt. That is my advice to one and
all. Faith is very essential for the pilgrim on the spiritual path. Man is
now caught up in temporary and trivial preoccupations in the too short
interval between birth and death, and he deceives himself by placing faith
in these rather than on truer and more lasting realities and experiences.
He does not hold onto discrimination and deeper realities and is carried
away by every gust of doubt or disappointment.
11 January 2003
I come only where sincerity, faith and surrender are valued. So, spend the
silent hours in meditation and Namasmarana (chanting the Name of the Lord)
in your own homes and deepen your faith. When life flows merrily, people
claim it is due to their own effort, and they forget God. When failure
visits the 'smooth flow', they start cursing and lose faith. Just as you
have to churn the milk to identify the butter in it, so too, you have to
carry on certain processes of thoughts and actions in order to get the
hard core of faith.
12 January 2003
When a death occurs in the family of your neighbour, you console him by
saying that it is no use weeping over worldly losses since weeping cannot
bring the dead back. But when death occurs in your own family, you grieve
just like your neighbour who has to repeat the same argument to console
you. All this happens because neither has developed faith in the Atma and
neither has the name of God on the tongue. Faith in yourself and faith in
God are identical. You tap the strength of God within when you stand at
attention against an enemy without. Faith is the basis for the experience
of bliss. Faith is like our life breath. Grief or joy, whatever the Lord
hands out, you must welcome with equal calmness.
13 January 2003
In hospitals, doctors concentrate on the disease, not on the bank balance.
Disease is the important thing. So too, in the case of those suffering
from Bhavaroga, the worldly misery, they have a right for the care and
consideration of the divine doctor who will prescribe the medicine and the
regimen; both are supplementary. When you get a relapse of doubt, take the
drug a greater number of times. Join Satsang, the company of the Godly, as
the spiritually minded will bring the doubter around. When doubt enters
through the front door, faith departs through the back door! Doubt comes
upon a man like a heart attack; it overwhelms a man all of a sudden. Doubt
is easy and faith difficult.
14 January 2003
The form usually creates doubts, for when only the Name is there, you can
build around it all your fancies, all that you want to complete the
picture. Do not be misled by doubts when the form has come before you;
make the opportunity useful, the life worthwhile. Doubting is truly a
component of demonic nature, for it eats into the vitals of Bhakthi
(Devotion). It clips the wings of joy; it dampens enthusiasm. It tarnishes
the hope such men cannot attain the goal even at the end of a thousand
births.
15 January 2003
A mother holds the child that has soiled its shirt and dresses it with a
new one; Death is the removal of the soiled shirt and birth is putting on
a fresh one. Let the Mother do her will; be a child in her hands. Have
full faith in her love and wisdom. Do not lose faith seeing people who
have gone astray, for it will be like judging rainwater to be dirty on
seeing a stagnant pond. Rainwater is pure; it is the soil that soils it.
16 January 2003
When the heart is pure, the Lord is revealed. He is the Judge. He cannot
be decided by trickery or flattery. The doctor may state that you have no
fever to build your morale, but the thermometer cannot lie. God knows and
God will deal with you as you deserve. Have that faith. As the carpenter
shapes the wood, the blacksmith shapes iron, the goldsmith shapes gold, so
the Lord shapes in His own way as the fancy suits Him, the Prakriti
(created universe), the manifold woven of space and time and guna (trait).
Know that the Lord is the basis and lose all fear.
17 January 2003
Like the cold of the atmosphere that can freeze water, the compelling
agony of the devotee's heart solidifies the Lord into the shape and the
attributes that he yearned for. He bows to your will; He carries your
burden, provided you have full faith in Him. The Lord fulfils your
innermost aspiration in a flash if it is compelling enough. Only you
should not allow your mind to waver due to doubt or disappointment. Leave
all to Him and be at ease; it is the man with no faith that is tossed
about on the sea like a ship caught in a storm with neither rudder nor
anchor. The devotee bears the ups and downs of life, keeping the balance
of his mind even.
18 January 2003
Faith can grow only by long cultivation and careful attention. Have faith;
faith will grant you all that you need. There is no task that I cannot
accomplish. You have faith in Lord Rama and Krishna, since you have read
books written about them. You have not demanded direct proofs of Divinity
from them. Have you? Have faith first, then you will get proof enough.
Take up the discipline of the recital of the Name. Why drag out your
existence as a mere consumer of food? Eat, but transform food into good
deeds, good thoughts, sweet speech. Move, but do not cause pain to others
or add to their misery.
19 January 2003
Guru Nanak said that without faith in God, man is blind; without it you
are moving corpses. Your life might be as grand, as rich as the Taj Mahal,
but the Taj is a tomb! Whatever the method of worship, whichever the name
or form, it is faith that matters; it is that which gives life and energy
for higher things.
20 January 2003
At this critical hour in the history of the world, when the demoniac
forces of fear and anxiety, injustice and inequity are raging in wild
fury, it is the duty of every human being to be equipped with spiritual
strength so that he may not be overwhelmed by the storm. This is an urgent
and essential task and I must say that the women of India have a
contribution to render service and a role to play. They must bring God
into the hearts of the child and help it to keep Him there. For, Faith in
God is the tonic that men needs to get back health and happiness.
21 January 2003
Artha & Kama (Wealth and Passion) should not be sought after, in
isolation. The fact that there is fear and anxiety in all sections of
people and in all stages of Life shows that men are pursuing only Artha
and Kama and neglecting Dharma and Moksha (Righteousness & Liberation).
Man is perpetually in search of peace, which is to be first established
with oneself, then it is extended to the family, society and the country.
Santhi comes from within; contentment is a mental condition. Overcome by
inner foes, how can man succeed in overwhelming the outer foes? Burdened
with sloth and dullness, how can he achieve wisdom? Prompted by passion,
how can he cultivate devotion? Balance and equanimity - these alone can
confer peace and harmony.
22 January 2003
It is an ancient observation, but it is true even today, that man spends
his childhood in pranks and play, his boyhood in sports and games, his
youth in pleasure and pastimes, his middle age in plans and schemes to
pile up fortune and his old age in hospitals and nursing homes trying to
bolster up failing health by means of failing wealth. He has no time for
anything else, his hands are too full. He has no peace, no spare time for
sitting quiet in one place.
23 January 2003
Today man ignores the principle of immortality that is his core, the
principle of love that is his lifehood. He denies himself the boon of
peace and is rushing towards destruction, destroying others in the
process. In creation in the objective world, no one article is like any
other. No two humans are similar in every respect. Each has his own
peculiar experiences. Immense diversity prevails. Yet unity must be
achieved. Nor is the individual the same for any length of time. Infant to
child to boy, an adult, and soon middle-aged, then old and finally senile.
So man must seek refuge in the changeless, the Paramatman (God), from
which all variety emerges and into which it merges. Then only can man
secure peace and contentment.
24 January 2003
Peace comes from within; Contentment is a mental condition. Do not feed
the roots of attachment to worldly comforts more than is absolutely
necessary. They lead only to anxiety and fear, they can never satisfy the
innermost craving of man. Earning and spending, man fills his time with
work. He has no peace. However, he is busy trying to earn happiness, but
the success is not much. Man does not realise the panacea for all his
ills, the effort that will result in total victory lies in the control of
Mind.
25 January 2003
The primary reason for the lack of peace in the world today is that
thoughts and conduct have gone astray. The first step, therefore, is to
make our thoughts pure. We need not bother about the past and the future.
Concentrate your attention on your duty in the present. Contentment is
heaven; grief is hell; anger is the foe; calmness is the armour; and
compassion is the comrade. You repeat shanti three times, don't you? It is
to encourage peace in the human, spiritual and natural milieu in which you
have to live; also to develop peace, to the body, mind and intellect.
Peace cannot be gotten through science. In fact, science and technology
are leading man away from peace. Wisdom cannot be had without a pure mind.
26 January 2003
The restless mind has to be calmed. There are three ways of calming the
mercurial mind: regulated breathing, social work and sadhana (spiritual
exercise). Inhale and exhale in a measured manner, watching its symmetry
and balance; this will diminish the eagerness of the inner tongue to
wander into conversation. Eventually it will give up the tendency for
good. Serve the diseased, sick and distressed. Undertake to teach a few
children who have no one else to care for them. Let your thoughts and
activities be selfless and sincere. The itch to communicate to the mind
will be healed thereby. You will find that your energies are better
utilized in serving your fellowmen than in talking with one's wavering
mind. Sadhana is to be resorted to in real earnest and with regularity. It
can be the repetition of the Name of the Lord, recitation of mantras
chanting hymns, or practice of some selected yogic postures.
27 January 2003
Shanthi (Peace) denotes the capacity to bear success and failure, joy and
misery, defeat and victory with perfect equanimity. So too, the man who is
at peace with himself will perceive peace all around him. Nature is
beauty, truth, peace. Man sees it ugly, false and violent...that is all.
To lead a happy life, man needs peace of mind. The mind of man is like a
turbulent ganga. It has to be restrained by applying brakes such as
dhyaana(meditation). Dhyaana means one-pointed concentration. Agitations
in the mind are the cause of all misery of the mankind. To lead a calm,
healthy life, man has to cultivate mental peace.
28 January 2003
When man thinks, speaks and acts along virtuous lines, his conscience will
be clean and he will have inner peace. Knowledge is power, it is said, but
virtue is peace. What exactly is Peace? It is the stage in which the
senses are mastered and held in balance. There is some small confusion of
terms, for there is not mind as such. Mind is a web of desires. Peace of
mind is no desires and in that state there is no mind. Mind is destroyed,
so to speak. Peace of mind really means purity, complete purity of
consciousness.
29 January 2003
Once you enter the depths of the sea, it is all calm, it is all peace.
Agitation, noise and confusion - all are only on the outer layers. So also
in the innermost recesses of the heart, there is a reservoir of shanthi
(peace) where you must take refuge. Peace and joy can be secured only by
realizing that they are one's own nature. So real shanthi is to be had
only in the depths of the spirit, the discipline of the mind, in faith in
the one base of all this seeming multiplicity. When that is secured it is
like having gold. You can have any variety of ornaments made from it.
30 January 2003
Now all things have gone up in value; man alone has become cheap - he has
become cheaper than animals. He is slaughtered in millions without any
qualm, because of the terrific growth in anger, hate and greed. He has
forgotten his unity with all men, all being, and all worlds. The
completion of that unity alone can establish world peace, social peace and
peace in the individual.
31 January 2003
Shanthi (Peace) is essential for sharpness of intellect. Shanthi develops
all the beneficial characteristics of man. Even farsightedness grows
through Shanthi. Through that, obstacles and dangers can be anticipated
and averted. But you cannot easily detach yourself from activity. The mind
clings to something or the other. Make it cling to God, let it do all
things for God, the loss and profit, the elation and dejection. Then you
have the secret of shanthi and contentment.
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