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Thought for the Day
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As written at
Prasanthi Nilayam
Source: Radio Sai
Global Harmony
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.
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