| |
Thought for the Day - As written at Prasanthi Nilayam
Thought for the Day Archive
March 2003
01 March 2003
Do not treat a holy day like Sivarathri as a holiday, set apart for
picnic, cinema, card-game, revelry and fun. The rishis fixed these days in
the calendar for the contemplation of God and the service of God in man,
for the removal of the weeds of vices and weakening habits. Contemplate on
the Atma-linga, the Jyoti-linga, which this day emerges from Me; be
convinced that the Linga is in everyone of you, for it is the mark of the
Siva, that resides in the Sava (the mortal flesh). Allow the vision of the
Atmalinga to enter into your inner consciousness and elevate it into
divine heights.
02 March 2003
It is best that you impress upon yourself the need for the basic step on
this Mahasivarathri, for this Rathri (night) is the night that has to
usher in the dawn of realization. On this Mahasivarathri, you have to
impress on your consciousness that Nature is alive, since God is life.
Nature is but a reflection of God. He lends the colour of order, purpose
and activity to inert Nature. Without the motivator, Nature is helpless
and powerless. Appearance is but a reflection of Reality; Iswara is but a
reflection of Brahmam, the Intelligence behind the Awareness of all.
Sivarathri inspires us to learn this basic Truth and shape our lives in
the light of that illumination.
03 March 2003
Egoism makes man see glory in petty achievement, happiness in trivial
acquisitions, joy in temporary authority over others. Egoism will be
destroyed if you constantly tell yourself, 'It is He, not I; He is the
force, I am but the instrument. Egoism is a tough enemy and it requires
constant vigilance to conquer it. The ego has to be fully curbed; the
faith that 'not even a blade of grass can shake in the wind without His
being aware of it and thus having caused it' has to be implanted in the
mind.
04 March 2003
Another fatal weakness is dambha, concent, egoism, pride, the desire to be
talked about, to be praised. People want that their names and deeds should
appear in daily newspapaers in big bold letters, as big as My head of
hair! But, it is not the newspapaers that you strive to get attention.
Earn the status in the realm of God, earn fame in the company of good and
the godly. Progress in humility, in reverence to elders and parents.
05 March 2003
Lust stands out as the prominent leader of all bad qualities. The other
three, anger, attachment and greed, follow the leader. In fact, desire (kama),
the lord of lust, is responsible for our death. It increases our
attachment and thereby weakens our intelligence and we become inhuman.
Because man is filled with pride, selfishness and self-interest, he has
ceased to be human. Your age, your youth, your strength, your wealth, your
status should not make you feel very proud because with your advancing age
all these will vanish. In this context, what is the point in your feeling
proud of this leather bag of a body?
06 March 2003
Man had discovered electricity and is proud to use it for giving light.
But what poor glory is this! When the sun rises even the brightest bulb
pales into insignificance. Man's handiwork of brick and mortar is laid in
ruins, with roofs flying in the air due to a storm. On what basis can he
erect his pride? The sun is but a star among billions in space. The Earth
is but a speck, rotating around the sun. The country to which he belongs
is but a fraction of that speck; his place of residence is a microscopic
dot in that fraction and he is but one among lakhs of people living
therein. He struts about for a few winks of time, and prides himself most
stupidly, as if he is the Lord and Master.
07 March 2003
Though anger and hatred are flames of fire consuming the mind, they can
also be used, like the hiss of the cobra, to ward off the evil that stalks
the sadhaka; be angry at things that hamper you; hate the habits that
brutalize you. In a household, when the wife is a shrew, there can be no
joy or peace. Or, if the husband is a drunkard and a cruel tyrant, the
atmosphere is charged with hate or grief. So, too , in the body, when the
mind is a shrew or when the intelligence is a tyrant, there can be no
peace.
08 March 2003
The toughest fibre of the fibrous armour of sensual desires which
encompasses your mind is anger. When you get angry, you forget everything
- whether the person is a mother, father or teacher; you descend to the
lowest depths. When you are agitated by anger or hatred or agony drink
cold water; lie down quietly; sing a few Bhajan songs. Or walk some long
distance alone, fast, so that the pestering thoughts are driven into
silence.
09 March 2003
The truth can flash only in a mind clear of all blemishes. The first
blemish that I would like to warn you against is the inability to bear the
success of others. Envy is the greatest sin. Vanity, envy and egoism,
these three are akin. They cut at the root of man's real nature. To feel
proud that you are a bhaktha is also a blot. Though you may be a mountain,
you must feel you are a mound; though a mound you should not pretend to be
a mountain.
10 March 2003
Before performing any action, you must investigate whether it is right or
wrong. At that stage, sometimes an evil force enters. It is Jealousy. It
clouds your vision and its companion is Ego. This ego is perpetually
seeking to dominate the body and the mind. These two evil elements are
always trying to establish themselves, particularly in the minds of the
youth. Jealousy has no reason or season.
11 March 2003
Men may have superabundance of food, clothing and housing; but their
hearts may be dry and their spirits glooming. Sense-control,
self-confidence, contentment, absense of hatred and greed are far more
precious possessions than land, money or houses. No effort is made today
to give lessons of this discipline in the educational institutions. It is
wrong to lay the blame on want of time. You are the obstructor, not the
time. The monkey that cannot pull out its clencled fist fromthe narrow
neck of the pot blames the pot or the maker of the pot. But if only it
releases the hold on the peanuts it has caught in that fist, it can easily
take its hand out. The fault lies in itself. So too, man's greed is the
reason for this want of time. That is why I often refer to it as the
monkey mind.
12 March 2003
Man has the extra qualifications of moral, sense, education and the
capacity to judge and discriminate, but man is still caught in the coils
of greed and greed is the seed-bed of grief. It is easy to conquer anger
through Love, attachment through reasoning, falsehood through truth, bad
thoughts through good and greed through charity. A field may look barren
and dead; but the first shower of rain will convert it into a green
carpet, the seeds of grass in the soil sprout, at the touch of dampness.
So too, at the first contact with temptation, the vishaya vasana
(attachment of sensual objects) sprouts and prevents growth of spiritual
discipline.
13 March 2003
Man thinks he is enjoying pleasure, but really speaking it is the pleasure
that is enjoying man. For, they destroy insidiously his energy, weaken his
discrimination faculty, eat up his allotted years of life and enter his
mind in a stealthy manner, infesting it with egoism, envy, malice, hate,
greed and lust. A person might be an expert in many fields of knowledge or
have mastery of many material skills, but without inner cleanliness, his
brain is like a desert waste or a massive rock with no trace of love,
mercy or expansive virtue.
14 March 2003
Man today being caught in selfish pursuits has degraded himself to the
level of animals. At every step, he is violating dharma. Every desire is
turning into greed. Large-heartedness is on the wane. Man's vision has
lost sight of love. Truth is a casualty in man's speech. Spirituality has
become a form of ostentation. Qualities like lust and anger are having a
free rein. Consciousness has become dormant in man. Human relationships
have become mechanical and artificial. In fact, humanness has virtually
disappeared.
15 March 2003
Man is equipped with a return-ticket when he takes birth. Holding it in
his grasp, he earns and spends, rises and falls, sings and dances, weeps
and wails, forgetting the end of the journey. But, though he forgets, the
wagon of life moves towards the cemetery, which is its terminus. It brings
no glory to man if he is tied helplessly to the wheel of birth and death.
His glory and greatness consist in disentangling himself from that
revolving wheel.
16 March 2003
Sense control will guard you against a host of evils. Do not believe that,
because you are equipped with the senses, nothing harmful can happen,
through their free exercises. You may have your car registered in your
name and be driving it yourself, but, if you do not apply the brakes
timely, accidents are bound to be your lot. Your body can be compared to a
car. Your eyes are like the lights. Your stomach, the petrol tank; your
mouth, the horn; your mind the steering wheel; Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha,
the wheels; the air within the tyres is faith; and intelligence or Buddhi,
the switch.
17 March 2003
Human desire is illimitable and without end. It makes you pursue the
mirage in the desert; it makes you build castles in the air; it breeds
discontent and despair, once you succumb to it. But develop the thirst for
Krishna; you discover the cool-spring of Ananda within you. Krishna-nama
makes you very strong and steady; it is sweet and sustaining.
18 March 2003
The world is a furnace and a factory where man has to shape his destiny by
his honest, untiring efforts. He who takes up this challenge and spends
his allotted years and the skill and the intelligence with which he
endowed, in purposeful activity, is really entitled to the status of a
Karma Yogi. The greatest single cause for darkness in the world today is
envy. When one is happy and contented, others envy him and strive to ruin
his peace of mind. When any one is acclaimed as great, malice moves others
to invent calumny, in order to tarnish his reputations. This is the way of
the world. There is in life the tragedy of ignorance and selfishness. They
force man to take the wrong road and suffer calamity.
19 March 2003
Remember always that it is easy to do what is pleasant; but it is
difficult to be engaged in what is beneficial. Not all that is pleasant is
profitable. Success comes to those who give up the path strewn with roses,
and brave the hammer blows and the sword-thrusts of the path fraught with
danger. As a matter of fact, no road is strewn with rose-petals. Life is a
battlefield: a Dharmakshetra, where duties and desires are always in
conflict. Smother the fiery fumes of Desire, Hatred and Anger, that rise
up in your hearts. It is sheer cowardice to yield to turn you into beasts.
20 March 2003
The end of wisdom is freedom. The end of culture is perfection. The end of
knowledge is love. The end of education is character. There is a desire on
the part of all of us to acquire these four qualities, namely wisdom,
culture, education and reach their ends, namely freedom, perfection, love
and character. But students should realize that if these qualities are not
properly utilised, then they cannot call themselves students. As students
and future citizens of this country, you have the responsibility for
shaping the future of this country. Put your hearts in the right path by
listening attentively to the more experienced men.
21 March 2003
Sathya and Dharma go together; they are the two faces of the same coin.
'Sathyam-naasthi Paro Dharmah'. There is no Dharma higher than Sathya,
Righteousness is built on the foundation of Truth. Strong will is the best
tonic. The will becomes strong when you know that you are a child of
immortality or a person who has earned the Grace of the Lord. Medicine and
hospitalisation are for these who doubt and hesitate and argue about this
doctor being more efficient than the other and this drug being more
powerful than the rest. For those who rely on the Supreme Doctor, His Name
is the drug that cures.
22 March 2003
In this Kali age, the wicked have to be reformed and reconstructed,
through love and compassion. That is why this Avatar has come unarmed. It
has come with the message of Love. The only weapon which can transform the
vile and the vicious is the Name of the Lord uttered with Love. The Name
is redolent with Divine Glory. So when it is turned over in the mind, it
transmutes it into an instrument for liberation from delusion.
23 March 2003
We think of wealth as consisting of buildings, property, material goods
and we have lost ourselves in the mad pursuit of temporal values. These do
not constitute the real wealth which is capable of giving us abounding
joy. Character is our wealth and good conduct is our treasure. Knowledge
of God is the foundation for both. We should not lose that abiding,
precious and eternal wealth, which is the knowledge of God, for fleeting
and temporary things which are like passing clouds. We should also know
that in our country, many Rajas who were very rich at one time are today
reduced to the level of the common people. On the other hand, some of the
common people have come up to the position of kings, enjoying greater
material wealth; therefore we should not equate lasting happiness with
changing material wealth.
24 March 2003
Mind does not have any powers. The only power is Atma-shakthi, the power
of Atma (Soul). Mind has no form. Mind can be said to be woven of desires,
the Atma shines on the heart, whether the heart be pure or impure. If the
heart is purified and if the strongest desire is for God, that is the
best.
25 March 2003
Seva brings out all that is great in man. It broadens the heart and widens
one's vision. It fills one with joy. It promotes unity. It proclaims the
truth of the Spirit. Students should purify their hearts and fill their
minds with sacred thoughts and consider that their bodies are for service
to the nation. Help ever; hurt never.Since everyone is of Divine origin,
all must take a pledge to serve others. Those who cannot be living towards
others cease to be human. Man should not regard himself as a weak and
imbecile creature.
26 March 2003
The fulfilment of human life consists in the service that man renders
without any thought of return, in an attitude of selflessness. First,
Self; then help; improve yourself, teach yourself, reconstruct yourself
and then proceed to solve the problems of others. That reconstruction is
quite easy, provided you inquire calmly into your own personality, i.e.
the body, or the senses or the MIND or the Buddhi, etc.
27 March 2003
Service to Man is more valuable than what you call 'Service to God'. God
has no need for your service. Please man; you please God.Service is God.
Why has God endowed man with a body, a mind and an intellect? Feel with
the Mind, plan with the intelligence and use the body to serve those who
are in need of service. Offer that act of service to God; worship HIM with
that flower. Put into daily practice the ideals that Satya Sai has been
propagating and make them known all over the world, by standing forth as
living examples of their greatness.
28 March 2003
All should be members of the groups doing social service. Human life is
meant for service to others. You should not be satisfied with just
undertaking service.You should also request friends and relatives to join
in.Whatever talent a person has should be dedicated to the service of the
rest of humanity, indeed of all living beings. Therein lies fulfillment.
Social service should not become 'show-cial' work carried out for
publicity or with the camera in view nor should it become 'slow-cial'
work. Why go slow when you are doing good to the deserving? Do as much as
you can. If you cannot do any good, at least desist from doing harm or
from finding fault with those who serve you.
29 March 2003
Worship of God in temples and shrines has its place in sanctifying time
and sublimating the instincts and impulses. Inquiry into reality has its
use in clearing the fog of doubt. But activity in the shape of service
charged with love fulfills the aims of our path to God. All hands are HIS,
all feet, all eyes and all faces and mouths are HIS. He works through all
hands, HE works through all feet; HE sees through each eye; HE eats and
speaks through each mouth. Everything is HE. Every step is HIS, every
look, every speech, every act is HIS. That is the lesson that service
instills.
30 March 2003
The human body is for rendering service to others like them, otherwise it
will have no meaning. I direct you to implant three ideas in your hearts;
(1) Do not forget God. (2) Do not put faith in the world you see around
you - it is ever changing and does not last. (3) Do not be afraid. I want
you also to banish two ideas from your hearts. (1) Forget the harm that
anyone has done to you. (2) Forget the good that you have done to others.
31 March 2003
Man when engaged in seva karma (service activity) for the good of society,
is bound to encounter many hurdles. This is a world of dual
characteristics - good and bad, joy and grief, progress and regress, light
and shade; do not get upset by all this. Do your duty as best as you can
with prayer to God. Work hard and sincerely and leave the rest in His
Hands. What exactly is SEVA? It is the very essence of devotion, the very
breath of a devotee, his very nature. It springs from the actual
experience of the devotee, an experience that convinces him that all
beings are God' children that all bodies are altars where God is
installed; that all places are HIS residences.
Online source: Radio Sai Global |
|