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Thought for the Day - As written at Prasanthi Nilayam
Thought for the Day Archive
May 2003
01 May 2003
If it be truthfulness which is supreme, then the path will be straight and
narrow, that of rectitude where thought, word and deed merge. If it be
worldly which is predominant, the path will lead towards ceaseless
activity to amass riches, power and fame. If greed has the upper hand, the
path will lead downwards towards destruction, towards a life of shame and
perversion.
02 May 2003
Joy is but the interval between two moments of pain, and pain is the
interval between two moments of joy. Do not count your tears of pain; do
not dwell on your grief. Let them pass through your mind, as birds fly
through the sky, leaving no trail behind. You must not lose heart when you
are disappointed. Perhaps your wish itself was wrong or its realisation
may have landed you in a worse situation. Anyway it is the will of the
Lord and He knows best.
03 May 2003
A time honoured proverb says "Na Sukhaath Labhyathe Sukham" - Real and
lasting happiness cannot be won through physical pleasures. Lasting
happiness can come only by the discipline of the mind and faith in the
Lord which cannot be diminished by good or bad fortune. Man has to use the
power of discrimination given to him to fight the evil forces within him
and to foster the Divine elements in him by his own effort, by listening
to the voice of his conscience. Man has to use the freedom to discriminate
between right and wrong, good and evil.
04 May 2003
Peace and happiness cannot prevail in the individual and society until man
develops faith in the unity of mankind, inspite of the apparent
differences. Man has to renounce all thoughts of difference and learn to
derive delight from the Vision of the One in the smallest and the most
colossal of God's Creation. Be happy and make others happy. Happiness in
the nature of the Atma.
05 May 2003
The Atma is unaffected by any subject or object. Even if the senses, mind,
intelligence are inactive, that will not affect the Atma. They have
nothing to do with the Atma, which you really are. To know the Atma as
such an entity, unaffected and unattached is the secret of Jnana (Wisdom).
Man is fundamentally happy and healthy. His nature is joy. So when he is
happy and healthy, no one is surprised or worried. But, grief and sorrow
are strange to his make-up. They are the result of a delusion that has
overwhelmed his nature. So people get worried and set about finding out
how he got so deluded.
06 May 2003
Mothers are highly noble and virtuous. Their nobility cannot be described
in words. From the worldly point of view, you should respect your father,
mother, preceptor and husband. It does not matter, if you do not acquire
worldly wealth, but you should win the wealth of your mother’s grace.
Bhagavad Gita says that a woman has seven qualities while man has only
three qualities. Jijabai made Shivaji great; Putlibai made Gandhi a
Mahatma. The word “Amma” starts with the first letter of the alphabet.
07 May 2003
Just as a child cannot be without its mother, a river must seek the ocean
of its source. Just as a fish cannot survive outside water, man who has
come from God cannot have real happiness until he returns to God.
08 May 2003
Life is a mosaic of pleasure and pain - grief is an interval between two
moments of joy. Peace is the interlude between two wars. You have no rose
without a thorn; the diligent picker will avoid the pricks and gather the
flowers. There is no bee without the sting; cleverness consists in
gathering the honey nevertheless. Troubles and travails will haunt you.
But you must not allow them to deflect you from the path of duty and
dedication. The world today is afflicted with anxiety, fear, depression,
hatred, greed and suspicion. The only way the world can be set right is
for man to realise his high destiny; for every man yearns for two boons -
attainment of joy and escape from sorrow.
09 May 2003
The idea that a big bungalow with costly sofas etc. or a big pay packet is
the aim of education should be given up. This idea breeds evil. The ideal
should be, hands dedicated to hard work, heads dedicated to service and
hearts full of compassion. Every one is eager to be happy; every one wants
to work less and gain more, give little and get amply, but no one
experiments with the other method, that is, wanting less and giving more.
Every want is a shackle that hinders movement, a drag on the foot.
10 May 2003
Man, in his ignorance, finds contentment in separating himself from the
rest for the search of his own happiness, forgetting that he cannot be
happy unless all are happy. He deludes himself through the cultivation of
pride. He uses time for degrading himself to the bestial level. Time is an
invaluable gift that has to be reverentially treated. People usually
measure time as from sunrise to sunset, and sunset to sunrise. But that is
only similar to the illusion which makes us infer that the moon is moving,
when we see passing clouds.
11 May 2003
Man will never gain happiness by giving a free rein to his senses. Man
allows the mind - mere bundle of thoughts and desires - to guide his
actions, instead of the intellect, which can discriminate, probe and
analyse. While the mind will follow blindly every whim and fancy, the
intellect helps man to identify one's duty and responsibility. Two things
are essential for happy life: Dhaanya and Dhyana- Dhaanya or grains for
sustenance of the body and Dhyana or contemplation for entering the temple
of the Lord and merging in His glory.
12 May 2003
If a man wishes to be happy, the first exercise he must do is to remove
from his mind every bad thought, feeling and habit. Grief and joy are
obverse and reverse sides of the same experience. Joy is when grief ends;
grief is when joy ends. What exactly is grief? Sai Baba explains that it
is merely a reaction to the loss of something gained or the failure to
gain something desired. Therefore, the only way to escape grief and sorrow
is to conquer desire for the illusory. The secret of happiness is not in
doing what one likes but in liking what one has to do. Whatever work you
have to do, you should do it with pleasure and liking.
13 May 2003
Some of you feel neglected by Me, when disappointment or trouble comes
upon you. But such difficulties alone can toughen your character and make
your faith firm. When you hang a picture on the wall, you shake the nail
and find out whether it is firm enough to bear the weight of the picture.
So, too, in order to prevent the picture of God (His image in your mind
and heart) from falling and being shattered to bits, the NAIL (i.e. God's
Name) driven in to the wall of the heart has to be tested by shaking it,
to ascertain whether it is firm and steady.
14 May 2003
The sugarcane should welcome the cutting, the hacking, the crushing, the
boiling and the straining to which it is subjected; since without these
ordeals, the cane would dry up and make no tongue sweet. So too, man must
welcome trouble for that alone brings sweetness to the spirit within. If
you wish to enjoy enduring happiness, you have to fill your mind with pure
thoughts and develop fine feelings in your heart. Through good thoughts
and kind actions, the heart gets pure and holy.
15 May 2003
Man is born for the attainment of Joy, not for sheer eating and revelling.
Real and lasting joy can be won only by a life led along the path of
Dharma (Righteousness) which makes the divinity of man shine forth;
illumination is the purpose of life; of the recurring sequence of birth
and death. Man has in him the spark of Divinity, which is Omnipresent,
Omniscient, Omnipotent and immanent in the entire universe. In order to
become ever aware of the innate Reality, man must learn the technique laid
down by the Scriptures, revealed by the same Divinity.
16 May 2003
The long-beaked stork never gets upset thinking over the sad fate of the
living beings it swallows. Students of today are also unconcerned about
the society and the parents who foster them. Every individual must prepare
himself to promote the happiness of others. The nature of man is such that
he experiences ananda (joy) by mixing with other humans. Not to mix and to
lead a secluded life is a sign of weakness and of fear, not of courage.
Active compassion, sympathy, love, tolerance, equanimity and many other
qualities that help build man's character. You cannot be happy when the
rest of mankind is unhappy. You are an organic part of the human race.
Share your prosperity with others; make an effort to alleviate the
sufferings of others. It is your duty.
17 May 2003
Man is born for the attainment of Joy, not for sheer eating and revelling.
Real and lasting joy can be won only by a life led along the path of
Dharma (Righteousness) which makes the divinity of man shine forth;
illumination is the purpose of life; of the recurring sequence of birth
and death. Man has in him the spark of Divinity, which is Omnipresent,
Omniscient, Omnipotent and immanent in the entire universe. In order to
become ever aware of the innate Reality, man must learn the technique laid
down by the Scriptures, revealed by the same Divinity.
18 May 2003
The greater the desires, the lesser the happiness you will experience.
Promote the sense of contentment. The discontented man loses everything;
only the contented man can experience real joy. The happiness in life will
be in inverse proportion to your desires. In the journey of life, as in a
railway journey, the lesser the luggage (desires) you carry, the greater
the comfort. What is it that prevents man from securing never-ending
happiness? There are five kinds of sufferings (kleshas). First is
ignorance (avidya klesha); second is unsteadiness (asthitha klesha); third
is immaturity (abhinava klesha); fourth is attachment (raaga klesha) and
fifth is hatred (dwehsa klesha).
19 May 2003
Man should not consider that happiness consists in having a house full of
children and equipped with all the amenities for comfortable living. No
one can liberate you, for no one has bound you. You hold on to the nettle
of worldly pleasure and you weep, like the kite that is pursued by the
crows so long as it carries the fish in its beak. Once the kite drops the
fish, immediately it is free. So you too should give up attachment to the
senses; then the sorrow and anxiety can harass you no more, and you can be
happy.
20 May 2003
There is a certain joy in being master of the senses, rather than being
their slave. Now, you are a slave of the coffee-drinking habit. Resolve
not to cater to that want at least for three days, continuously. You
become the master of the tongue, and the tongue becomes your slave. If
coffee is capable of conferring joy, all should get it equally from that
beverage. But many prefer tea and some take it without sugar, while some
others without milk. So, it is the mind that gives delight and not the
coffee: it is not the object that caters to the senses.
21 May 2003
Ananda is your greatest need. But, you cannot order it from any shop. It
has to be earned the hard way - by doing good deeds, moving in good
company, desisting from evil and keeping the mind attached to the glory of
God. Good and bad cannot be kept together in the same vessel; then the
good will also will turn bad. Night and light cannot co-exist.
22 May 2003
Happiness and peace do not follow when man is fed well, clothed well,
housed well and educated up to a good standard and employed under
comfortable conditions, with no injury to health or security. There are
many who have all these in plenty but who are yet worried or in pain or
discontented. They depend on the inner equipment of man, not on his outer
skills or riches.
23 May 2003
Every man desires to acquire Ananda. From where can Ananda be acquired?
Faith alone can win Ananda. Peace can be got only through Faith; Faith is
the spring of joy. But now we see sorrow, wherever we cast our eyes. Why
does this happen? Because man has lost faith. He has no faith in himself.
How can he acquire Ananda? How can a person, who has not got faith enough
to live happily for a few days, win the grace of God?
24 May 2003
Life on earth is, as on the ocean, ever restless, with the waves of joy
and grief, and of loss and gain, the swirling currents of desires and the
whirlpools of passion, greed and hate. To cross the ocean, the only
reliable raft is a heart filled with the Love of God and man. Man is born
for a high destiny, as the inheritor of a rich heritage. He should not
fritter away his days in low pursuits and vulgar vanities. His destiny is
to know the Truth, live in it and for it. The Truth alone can make man
free and happy. If he is not prompted by this high purpose, life is a
waste and a mere tossing on the waves, for the sea of life is never calm.
25 May 2003
The fire of sorrow and joy burns when the fuel of vasanas (tendencies) are
fed in to the furnace of the mind. Take away the fuel and the fire dies
out. Take away the vasanas, the force of impulses, promptings and urges
and you become your own master. This is done in Yoga by various
physiological exercises. But Bhakthi (the path of Devotion) is the easier
means for this end. Namasmarana (chanting of God's name) is enough: it is
said that the name 'Sitarama' sufficed in the Tretha yuga; the name 'Radheshama'
sufficed in the Dwapara yuga; and now in the Kali yuga, all names have
that capacity.
26 May 2003
When you live in the world of desire, you must be prepared for both joy
and grief. Invite the Minister, Bhoga (sensual pleasures) and you must be
prepared for the visit along with him of his private secretary - Roga
(sickness)! Invite on the other hand, the Minister Thyaga (sacrifice), or
his colleague Yoga (control of mind); and you will be happy to receive
their private secretary - Bhoga, who plays a minor role in the presence of
his master.
27 May 2003
Joy is a deceptive trap; grief is the real preceptor, teaching caution,
circumspection, discrimination, detachment, awareness and vigilance. Death
is not that merciless as it is made out to be; it is the friend and
companion, the teacher, the kindly kinsman, which takes you in to its fold
and clothes you with the halo of remembrance. The heart of man has to be
toughened, not hardened; it has to be made soft, not slithery; this can be
achieved only by the blows of loss, grief and distress. It is God's way of
shaping us in the Divine mould.
28 May 2003
Like the black bee which though it has the capacity to bore a hole through
a strong bamboo, gets immersed in the enjoyment of honey when it enters
the lotus flower and thus forgets its own power, man has forgotten the
Divine in him and is immersed in worldly concerns and is intoxicated with
mundane pleasures. That alone is the cause of all his misery.
29 May 2003
The sorrows of life cannot be ended through hatred and injustice; these
will only breed more of the same species. The sorrows will yield only to
nobler and higher thoughts and experiences germinating from the pure
heart, where the Lord resides.
30 May 2003
Sorrows and disasters are the clouds that flit across the sky; they cannot
injure the blue depths of space of faith. Look upon joy and sorrow as
teachers of hardihood and balance. Grief is a friendly reminder, a good
taskmaster, even a better teacher than joy. Do not flinch in the face of
grief. Welcome the test because thereafter you are awarded the
certificate. It is to measure your progress that tests are imposed.
31 May 2003
So long as man lives a life devoted to objective pleasures and objective
victories, he cannot escape sorrow, fear and anxiety. There is no object
without fault or failing; there is no pleasure that is unmixed with pain;
there is no act that is not tainted with egoism. So be pure and develop
detachment, which will save you from grief.
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