Thought for the Day - As written at Prasanthi Nilayam


Thought for the Day Archive

June 2003

01 June 2003

When obstacles come, meet them with courage. They harden you and make you tough. Suffering and misery are inescapable acts of the Cosmic drama. God does not decree these calamities, but man invites them by way of retribution for his evil deeds. This is the corrective punishment by nature, which induces man to give up the wrong path. All this is part of the grand synthesis in which the negatives serve to glorify the positives. Thus death glorifies immortality; ignorance glorifies wisdom; misery glorifies bliss; night glorifies dawn.

02 June 2003

Worry or Grief there will always be, of one type or the other, in the Past, Present or the Future; while waking, dreaming, and sleeping. But place faith in the Lord and do your tasks as dedicated to Him and they will both vanish. Grief is caused, as joy is caused, by the attachment of the senses to the objects. Once you know that you are not the senses or the mind, but He who operates the senses and wields the mind, you cross the bounds of pleasure and pain.

03 June 2003

Joy and sorrow are like two pots carried by a man on a pole. They are inseparable. No one can tell what the future has in store for any individual. Just as apparently opposing conditions like heat and cold are of use to man in certain situations, similarly joy and sorrow, loss and gain are also helpful to man. If there be no sorrow, how can man appreciate happiness? To realize the greatness of light, darkness is required.

04 June 2003

Generally man seeks only happiness and joy; under no stress will he desire misery and grief! He treats happiness and joy as his well-wishers and misery and grief as his enemies. This is a mistake. When one is happy, the risk of grief is great. Misery prompts inquiry, discrimination, self-examination and fear of worse things that might happen. Happiness makes one forget one's obligations to oneself as a human being. It drags man into egoism and the sins that egoism leads one to commit. Grief renders man alert and watchful. So misery is a real friend; happiness spends out of the stock of merit and arouses the baser passions. So happiness really is an enemy.

05 June 2003

It is best to regard both happiness and misery as gifts of God. Two things are essential for happy life; dhan (grain) and dhyana (meditation). While in search of happiness, pay attention to three basic duties: 1. Forger the world around you with its fatal pleasures 2. Man has to reach the goal of the Divine. 3. Man has to give up material desires and pursuits.

06 June 2003

Man cannot eliminate all desires from his mind. The ancient scriptures (the Vedas) lay down four goals before man: Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desire), Moksha (Liberation). As far as we can make out, man today is running after the middle two (wealth and desire), because he finds that compliance of Righteousness and Liberation is difficult without detachment and depravation of sensual pleasures, and man has today declared them impractical and a waste of time. All the misery in the world is due to this dire mistake. What has to be done is to take the four as inseparable pairs. Earn wealth through righteousness and use wealth for the promotion of righteousness; and let liberation be your only desire.

07 June 2003

Though the world has become a very small globe as a result of fast means of communication and transport, man has not yet learnt the art of living together in close proximity as brothers and as children of the One God. The closer men are brought, the larger the differences that appear. Thus, the little World is now riddled with problems of conflicting cultures, competing creeds and contesting ambitions. The sorrows of one State spread fast into all its neighbours and inflict on the whole world. The world has become one vast battlefield.

08 June 2003

Cast away the vice of egoism, the evil of greed and the poison of envy. When you seek joy from something outside you, remember that a far greater joy lies in wait within your own inner consciousness. When the night grows chilly, you draw the rug tighter around you. So too, when grief assails you, draw the warmth of the Name of the Lord closer around your mind.

09 June 2003

Worldly goods do not confer happiness. It is the mind that conveys the feeling. For example many drink coffee and some drink tea, with or without sugar and milk. If coffee could make man happy, then everyone would drink coffee. Those who suffer have My Grace. Only through suffering will they persuaded to turn inward and make the inquiry, without which they can never escape misery. People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfill them and they fail. They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief.

10 June 2003

You should not allow yourselves to be overwhelmed in any way by difficulties and sorrows, doubts and disappointments. You must have faith. Have confidence in yourself and others to understand well the nature of God's Love. To secure that love is the sacred goal of human life.

11 June 2003

Do you think I would confront you with pain were there not a reason for it? Open your heart to pain as you do now to pleasure, for it is My Will, wrought by me for your own good. Welcome it as a challenge. Do not turn away from it, do not listen to your mind, for mind is but another word for "need". The mind engenders need; it manifested the world, because it needed this. It is all My plan, to drive you by the pangs of unfulfilled need to listen to My Voice, which when heard dissolves the ego and the mind with it.

12 June 2003

What is the root of worry? Wants: and the efforts to fulfill them, and the fear of not succeeding to the extent desired. Reduce wants and you reduce worry. You congregate here in the Nilayam-verandah, seeking personal interviews with Me, with a load of wishes in your heart, wishes that you want me to fulfill! Why carry all the load? Carry only one load, the desire to win the grace of God; he will confer what is best for you. Leave the rest to Him.

13 June 2003

Spiritual health is preserved and promoted by attention to three Gunas: Sathvika, Rajas and Thamas. Health is preserved and promoted by attention to three humours ; Vatha (wind), Pitha (bile) and Kapha (phlegm). The three humours must not get vitiated or unbalanced. A healthy body is the best container for a healthy mind. Illness makes the mind agitated and anxious. The material and the spiritual are the two pans in the balance. They have to be attended to, in equal measure, at least until a certain stage of progress is attained in spiritual development.

14 June 2003

The body is the temple of God; hence it is the duty of man to keep it in good condition. Health is the primary requisite for all activities, physical, intellectual and spiritual. The body has to be kept ever clean, bereft of disease, dirt, defeatism and distress. Any injury or illness that affects the body adversely has to be attended to with loving care.

15 June 2003

For what purpose should health be maintained? What is the best use to which the body has to be put? For this body, with all its equipment of senses, intellect, feeling and memory is an instrument, is but an implement to reach a certain goal. The owner of the chariot is any day more important than the chariot itself; it is for his sake that it has to be kept trim and efficient and in good condition. Health is the essential prerequisite for success in all aspects of life, for realizing the four ideals that should guide humans; moral living, fulfilling beneficial desires, prosperity and liberation from grief.

16 June 2003

Illness is caused more by malnutrition of the mind than of the body. Doctors often speak of vitamin deficiency. I will call it the deficiency of Vitamin 'G', and I will recommend the Name of God. That is Vitamin 'G'! That is the medicine; regulated life and habits are two-thirds of treatment, while medicine is just one-third. Fear is the biggest cause of illness.

17 June 2003

To many, it may appear strange that, in a place that is dedicated to the health of the Spirit, prominence is given to bodily health. But, for attaining the four aims of Human life, Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Prosperity), Kama (Fulfilment of Desires) and Moksha (Liberation from Bondage), the basic requirement is health of the body and the mind. Fear and anxiety that prevail today are the results of degradation of values, the ignorance of what is significant and what is not. People prefer what is pleasing to what is beneficial.

18 June 2003

Advice handed down by the seers of the ancient times is, 'Eat in moderation and live long'. This advice is seldom heeded. Most of the people are overeating all the time. They are ruining their digestive systems by consuming rich and heavy foods. Evil thoughts cause ill health. Anxiety, fear and tension also contribute their share. All these result from greed, which in turn result in sorrow and despair. Contentment can come only from a spiritual outlook

19 June 2003

What are the main causes of ill-health? Millions of living beings sustain themselves by the food provided by Nature. But man, in order to satisfy the cravings of the tongue, changes the composition and characteristics of things provided by Nature, and prepares food by the process of boiling, frying and mixing concoctions, which hardly have any nourishing value in them. Thus, vitamins and proteins that are valuable nourishment are destroyed. The billions of cells are so interdependent that one is weakened and or damaged, all of them suffer.

20 June 2003

When the body is fit, mental functions too, run smoothly; when the body suffers, the mind too gets unsettled. So, this raft called the body, which is the only means of getting across the sea of changes or samsara, has to be kept in good trim. Devotion and morality are as important for physical as they are for mental health. They free the mind of agitation, they feed it with joy and contentment, they quieten the nerves and help even the bodily processes. All must equip themselves with strong bodies.

21 June 2003

By regulating your diet and avoiding bad habits, you can preserve health. Moderate food of the Sathwic type will promote mental poise and physical happiness. Many people consume more than necessary quantity of rich food. If you do not smoke, you escape a number of illnesses that follow that Rajasic practice. Avoid any intoxicant or stimulant, because it disturbs nature's balance and is thus harmful.

22 June 2003

Today, there is pollution in everything, such as the air we breathe, the water we drink, the sounds that are jarring to the ears, and the food we consume. Because of all this, man's health is affected. Apart from this, man's mind also is polluted, making him susceptible to diseases. Man should make an earnest endeavour to lead a serene and pure life.

23 June 2003

It is not only unbridled passion which damages the health of man. Living on ill-gotten money also causes ill health to some extent. Living on earnings got by unjust means causes many unknown diseases to take root in us. It is said, As is the Food, So is the Mind; As is the Mind, So are the Thoughts; As are the Thoughts, So is the Conduct; As is the Conduct, So is the Health. Man today is the victim of worry. What is the cause of this worry? Worry causes hurry and both together bring about ill health. So worry, hurry and curry (fatty foods) are the root cause of cardiac ailments.

24 June 2003

You complain of lack of devotion for God. You have lost devotion because you have eaten unwholesome food, not because you have had a surfeit of good food. You have no knowledge which food is wholesome. You wrongly believe that the unwholesome food you get through the impure gateway of the senses keep you healthy

25 June 2003

Food and recreational habits are the two main causes of ill health. Care has to be taken to ensure that these habits do not develop in to injurious tendencies. At present though drugs have multiplied and hospitals have been established in every nook and corner, ill health is also widespread. This situation is attributable to the spread of indiscriminate food habits and pastimes.

26 June 2003

The scriptures proclaim that health is the very root of all endeavours in the four fields of human achievement-Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Prosperity), Kama (Fulfilment of Desires) and Moksha (Liberation from Bondage). Without health, man cannot overcome temptations, earn a decent living, fulfill his basic needs or succeed in spiritual sadhana. Man can engage himself in obligatory and optional duties, only if he is healthy.

27 June 2003

Diseases which torment man are many in number. Of these, hatred, envy and egoism are the worst. Even the doctors cannot cure them, for even they suffer from these afflictions! Anger is another enemy of health. It injects poison into the bloodstream.

28 June 2003

Man should try earnestly to live long, without falling into the hands of doctors.Most illnesses can be cured by simple living, simple mental and physical exercises and by not succumbing to the temptations of the tongue.

29 June 2003

No doubt, physical comforts are necessary up to a point, but they should be limited to meeting the basic demands of nature. Admittedly, food is essential, but it should be wholesome and sathwic. Excess of anything is bad and it will lead man to sorrow. As long as desires remain, fear and insecurity will be chasing man. Desist from catering to the tongue. Do not be a victim of Lust and Taste. All your knowledge and experience are useless if you cannot exercise control over your organs.

30 June 2003

Man must prefer sathwic to rajasic foods.By drinking intoxicating stuff, one loses control over the emotions and passions, the impulses and instincts, the speech and movements and one even descends to the level of beasts. By eating meat one develops violent tendencies and animal diseases. The mind becomes difficult to control when one indulges in rajasic food; it can never be remoulded if thamasic food is consumed with relish. To dwell in Rama principle, one has to be vigilant about food and drink consumed by both body and mind. Eat sathwic food; uncooked food, nuts and fruits, germinating pulses are best.
 

Online source: Radio Sai Global