Vice breeds disease. Evil thoughts and habits, bad company and unsuitable
food are the main causes of ill-health. Arogya (good health) and Ananda
(happiness) go hand in hand. When the mind is happy, the body too is free
of disease. Evil habits, which men indulge in, are the chief causes of
diseases, physical as well as mental. Greed affects the mind;
disappointment makes man depressed. Man can justify his existence only by
the cultivation of virtues. Only then does he become a worthy candidate
for Godhood.
June 2, 2005
It is essential to cleanse the mind through regular sadhana (spiritual
discipline), to tune the individual to the infinite will of God, to merge
in His Glory. Scholarship or skill, however deep and varied, have no
purifying power. They only add the alloys of pride and competition.
Learned men are not necessarily good, nor are men with spiritual powers
necessarily above pride, envy and greed. Sathya (Truth), Dharma
(Righteousness), Shanti (Peace) and Prema (Love) are the true qualities of
a person with a pure heart, a heart where God is enshrined and is
manifest.
June 3, 2005
One need not search for spiritual power, going around the world and
spending a lot of money. You can stay in your own house and develop it
within yourself. You do not have to run for it hither and thither. You are
not a mere man, but God Himself. Do not be under the delusion that God is
residing somewhere and that you have to search for Him; God is within you.
June 4, 2005
It is best that you stay away from companions who drag you to such
distractions that weaken and worry you; spend a few minutes every morning
and evening in the silence of your own home, in His elevating and
inspiring company; worship Him mentally, offer unto Him all the work you
do; and you will come out of the silence, nobler and more heroic than when
you went in.
June 5, 2005
You have to busy yourselves with activity in order to use time and skill
to the best advantage. That is your duty, and duty is God. The dull and
the inert (Tamasic) will hesitate to be active for fear of exhaustion or
failure. The emotional and passionate individuals (Rajasic) will plunge
headlong, craving for quick results and be disappointed when results do
not come in as expected. The persons with balance of mind (Sathwic) will
be active, considering it their duty; success or failure will not disturb
their equanimity. The godly will take up activity as a means of
worshipping God. They leave the fruits of their efforts to God, as they
know they are but instruments in His hands.
June 6, 2005
The human body is like a chariot; the Atma (Self) is installed therein and
it is dragged by emotions, impulses, passions and urges along the streets
of desire. Success and failure, joy and grief, gain and loss are the
dancers who accompany the procession of Life. Many pay attention to the
chariot, its height, its decoration and its progress. Many others are
concerned with the dance of dualities and the pain-pleasure duet that is
part of the procession. Few pay attention to the Inner Soul, which is the
very basis of existence.
June 7, 2005
Live without hating others, condemning others and seeking faults in
others. Sage Vyasa, who composed eighteen voluminous Puraanas, summarised
them all in a small couplet: "Doing good to others is the only meritorious
act; doing evil is the most heinous sin." When you feel that you cannot do
good, at least desist from doing evil. Do not try to discover differences,
but instead discover unity.
June 8, 2005
Sages and saints have known that the most noteworthy achievement of the
senses is the glorification of the divinity within. One saint said, "These
are not eyes but globules of glass if they cannot earn the vision of God.
Yet another said, "These are not ears but muscular protrusions if they do
not relish the name of God". The world and its attractions may appeal to
your instincts and impulses, but God draws out your Love as no worldly
being can. Develop the inner vision and the habit of listening to the
inner voice; and you are assured of unshakeable peace and infinite joy.
June 9, 2005
When a tree first shoots forth from the seed, it comes up as a stem with
two incipient leaves. But, later, when it grows, the trunk is one and the
branches many. Each branch may be thick enough to be called a trunk; but,
one should not forget that it is through that trunk that the roots feed
life-giving sap to the branches. Similarly, it is the one God who feeds
the spiritual hunger of all nations and all faiths through the sustenance
of truth, virtue, humility and sacrifice.
June 10, 2005
Service is God. Why has God endowed man with a body, a mind and an
intellect? Feel and empathise with suffering through your mind, plan using
your intelligence and use the body to serve those are in need. Offer that
act of service to God; worship Him with that flower. Put into daily
practice the ideals that Sai has been propagating and make them known all
over the world by standing forth as living examples of their greatness.
June 11, 2005
There is no discipline equal to service to smother the ego and to fill the
heart with genuine joy. To condemn service as demeaning and inferior is to
forego these benefits. If a wave of service sweeps over the land, catching
everyone in its enthusiasm, it will be able to wipe off the mounds of
hatred, malice and greed that infest the world. Attune your hearts so that
they vibrate in sympathy with the woes and joys of your fellowmen and fill
the world with your love.
June 12, 2005
Man has to give up the pursuit of sensory objects if he seeks to gain
lasting peace and joy. Material wealth brings with it not only joy but
also grief. Accumulation of riches, multiplication of wants - these lead
only to alternation between joy and grief. Attachment is the root of both
joy and grief; detachment is the saviour. Feel that your family, your
house and your possessions are all the Lord's property and you are only
the trustee.
June 13, 2005
Man today is behaving with even less gratitude than what animals and birds
display. He is ungrateful to his parents, teachers, society and even God.
He makes a parade of his adherence to truth, righteousness, peace, love
and non-violence but does not practise any of them. All this is because of
intense selfishness and pre-occupation with his own concerns and
interests. Only when man sheds his selfishness can he turn his mind
towards God.
June 14, 2005
As a drop of water on a lotus leaf disappears in no time, even so, we
should know that our life is transient and will disappear in no time. The
world is full of sorrow, the human body is full of disease and our life is
full of turbulent thoughts. Under these circumstances, it is possible to
live in a peaceful manner only by following the Divine path and getting
over all our worldly attachments.
June 15, 2005
When you scatter seeds on the surface of the soil they do not germinate.
You have to plant them inside the soil. So too, My words, if scattered on
the surface, will not germinate and grow into a tree of knowledge and
yield the fruit of wisdom. Plant it in the heart, water the plant with
Love, and nourish it with faith and courage. Keep off pests with Bhajan
(devotional singing) and Satsang (spiritual congregation), so that you may
finally reap its benefit.
June 16, 2005
The Lord is a Mountain of Prema (Love); any amount can be drawn from it
without exhausting His Plenty. He is an Ocean of Mercy without a limiting
shore. Bhakthi (devotion) is the easiest way to win His Grace and also to
realise that He pervades everything; in fact, is everything! Sharanaagathi
(total surrender), leaving everything to His Will, is the highest form of
Bhakthi.
June 17, 2005
In this world, which is impermanent and ever changing, the Immanent Power
of the Lord is the only permanent and fixed entity. In order to realise
the Eternal and the True, one has perforce to attach oneself to that
Source and Sustenance. There is no escape from this path. It is the
destiny of one and all, irrespective of age or scholarship, clime or
caste, gender or status.
June 18, 2005
There are four types of people: the 'dead', who deny the Lord and declare
that they alone exist, independent, free, self-regulating and
self-directed; the 'sick', who call upon the Lord whenever some calamity
befalls them or whenever they feel temporarily deserted by the usual
sources of succour; the 'dull', who know that God is the eternal
companion, but who remember it only off and on, when the idea presents
itself powerfully; and lastly, the 'healthy', who have steady faith in the
Lord and who live in His comforting presence always.
June 19, 2005
The greatest obstacles on the path of surrender are Ahamkaara (feeling of
'I') and Mamakaara (feeling of 'mine'). These feelings have been inhering
to your personality since ages, embedding themselves deeper and deeper
with the experience of every succeeding life. They can be removed only
with the detergents of discrimination and renunciation. Bhakthi is the
water to wash away this dirt of ages, and the soap of Japa, Dhyaana and
Yoga (repetition of God's name, meditation and communion) will help to
remove it quicker and more effectively.
June 20, 2005
Wipe out the root causes of anxiety, fear and ignorance. Then only can the
true personality of man shine forth. Anxiety is removed by faith in the
Lord; the faith that tells you that whatever happens is for the best and
that the Lord's Will be done. Quiet acceptance is the best armour against
anxiety. Sorrow springs from egoism, the feeling that one does not deserve
to be treated so badly. When egoism goes, sorrow disappears. Ignorance is
just the mistaken identity of the body as the Self.
June 21, 2005
The greatest short-coming of man today is the absence of Atma Vichaara
(the inquiry into the Self). That is the root cause of all this Ashanti
(restlessness). This Atma Vichaara is described in the Upanishads through
an analogy. Just as a river's flow is regulated by bunds and directed to
the sea, so too the Upanishads regulate and restrain the senses, the mind
and the intellect, and help one to merge one's individuality in the
Absolute. Study the Upanishads with a view to put this advice into
practice.
June 22, 2005
Many pray to God all over the world. They pray for the realisation of
worldly desires of one kind or the other. This is not the right kind of
prayer. You should pray to God for His grace and love. That love is
everlasting. God is Sath-Chith-Ananda (Being-Awareness-Bliss). So, pray to
Him to confer that bliss on you. God's bliss is everlasting, whereas
worldly pleasures are transient. Only he is a true devotee who prays for
God's love and bliss.
June 23, 2005
When you meditate, the mind often runs after something else and tends to
get diverted along other channels. You then have to plug that diversion by
means of the Name and the Form and ensure that the steady flow of your
thoughts towards the Lord is not interrupted; if it happens again, use the
Name and the Form again, quickly. Do not allow the mind to go beyond the
twin bunds, the Name on one side and the Form on the other! When your mind
wanders away from the recital of the Name, take it to the picture of the
Form. When it wanders away from the picture, lead it to the Name. Let it
dwell either on the sweetness of the Name or the beauty of the Form.
Treated thus, the mind can be easily tamed.
June 24, 2005
There is no use arguing and quarrelling among yourselves about the nature
of divinity. Examine and experience, then you will know the Truth. Do not
proclaim before you are convinced; be silent while you are still undecided
or engaged in evaluating. Discard all evil in you before you can attempt
to understand the mystery. And, when faith sprouts, fence it with
discipline and self-control, so that the tender shoot might be guarded
against cattle, the motley crowd of cynics and unbelievers. When your
faith grows into a big tree, those very cattle can lie down in the shade
that it will spread.
June 25, 2005
It is the mind which makes or mars a man. If it is immersed in things of
the world, it leads to bondage; if it treats the world as but temporary,
then by that Vairaagya (detachment) it becomes free and light. Train the
mind not to get attached to transient things of the world. Do not hold
before it the tinsels of worldly fame and riches; lead it towards the
lasting joys derived from the divine spring inside you. The mind itself
will then become the Guru, for it will lead you to the goal, having tasted
the sweetness of Shravana, Manana and Nidhidhyaasana (listening,
recapitulating and internalizing).
June 26, 2005
Do not think that only those who worship a picture or image with pompous
paraphernalia are devotees. Whoever walks straight along the moral path,
whoever acts as he speaks and speaks as he has seen, whoever melts at
another's woe and exults at another's joy is a devotee, perhaps a greater
devotee. It is Bhakthi (devotion) that makes the prayer reach God, not the
festoons, the fanfare, the heap of flowers or the feast offerings.
June 27, 2005
Truth can reflect itself in the intellect only when it is clarified by 'tapas'
(penance). Tapas means all acts undertaken with noble motives and all acts
indicating yearning for the spirit, repenting for past mistakes, staunch
determination to adhere to virtue, self-control and unyielding adherence
to equanimity in the face of success or failure. 'Taapam' means heat,
burning intensity and earnestness of endeavour. It is tapas that fosters
renunciation and discipline.
June 28, 2005
You do not see the foundations of a skyscraper. Can you, therefore, argue
that it simply sits on the ground? The foundations of this life are laid
deep in the past, in lives already lived by you. This structure has been
shaped by the ground plan of those lives. It is the unseen foundation that
decides the structure and design of the entire edifice.
June 29, 2005
What is realization? The moment you see your inner beauty and are so
filled with it that you forget all else, you are free from all bonds; you
know that you are all Beauty, all Glory, all Power; the reflection of
Shivam (God) in the mirror of Prakruthi (nature) is Jiva (the individual).
June 30, 2005
Love is a ceaseless flow of Divine effulgence. Sages call this Love, Atma.
This Atma, which is full of Love, is shining in all hearts. Love, Atma and
heart are synonyms for God. For such pure Love, there cannot be any
differences based on mine and thine. This Love is selfless. Where there is
confidence, there is Love. Where there is Love, there is Peace. Where
there is Peace, there is Truth. Where there is Truth, there is Bliss.
Where there is Bliss, there is God.