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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
September 2003
01 September 2003
Seek the company of the good and the aspirants.
Man must carefully select proper company. But even when he is forced
to work in a group of evil people to earn his living, he can still
avoid being affected, just as the tongue avoids getting gnashed
between the
teeth.
02 September 2003
Consider the good influence that good
association can exert. A big boulder lying neglected by the side of
the road can receive adoration of thousands when it is sculpted into
an idol and
installed in a temple. However, evil company demeans and debases
man. Take the example of fire, which is held sacred and religiously
fed in every orthodox home. But, when the fire enters the rod of a
blacksmith, it has to suffer hammer blows. Attachment to the iron
brings about this calamity for the highly venerated fire.
03 September 2003
Man by his very nature has a tendency to make
an effort to satisfy the desires that arise within him or which are
prompted through senses from without. Very often these are
deleterious. Is there any end to the list of your worldly desires?
When you satisfy one, another starts tantalising you. If something
is lost or stolen from you, you lose faith in Me. I have not come to
guard your jewels and your valuables. I have come to guard your
virtues and character, and
guide you to the Goal.
04 September 2003
The company of good persons shall promote good
thoughts. It is good thoughts that help us to strengthen our will
power, which is the basis of acquiring other qualities, that is,
discrimination,
determination, intelligence, and enquiry, but this will power
becomes weak due to limitless desires. It is a great pity that the
mind of man is making him sacrifice the good things in life like the
love of God, fear of sin and social morality.
05 September 2003
The serpent is hated and beaten to death
whenever it is seen by man. But, in association with lord Shiva, the
serpent receives adoration from millions. So, Sathsang (holy
company) is a very important requisite for moral and spiritual
advancement. If you keep Sathsang continuously, your hearts will
maintain purity. But, if you resort to it occasionally, then like
the less used utensil in the house, your hearts will get tarnished.
06 September 2003
A piece of string may be white and bright, but
no one will wear it around the neck; but, the moment it gets
converted into a garland of fragrant flowers, all would love to have
it in their hair or around their neck. The Sathsang (holy company)
of flowers bestows on the string a high status. The success of the
Saadhana (spiritual practice) to follow the path of Truth depends on
self-control and sense control. This is necessary for successful
execution of our daily routine chores. Birds, beasts, insects and
worms suffer much by their activity directed by their senses alone.
But, in man it has become a highly developed skill because he must
be able to separate
the chaff from the grain and decide on the constructive path of
truth and righteousness.
07 September 2003
If the yogi lives among worldly men, the
chances of his yoga evaporating into bhoga (indulgence in pleasures)
are very great. Satsang is like the bit and bridle for the wanton
steed. The value
of holy places, sacred pilgrimages etc., consists in just this; that
kindred spirits congregate there and contribute to the value of
spiritual yearning. You can take sweet and sustaining counsel
together in such places and strengthen your faith and devotion. If
at any place you do not find such an atmosphere, avoid it and move
on until you find such a place.
08 September 2003
The grace of God cannot be won through the
gymnastics of reason, the contortions of yoga, or the denials of
asceticism. Love alone can win it; love that needs no requital; love
that knows no bargaining; love that is paid gladly to the All-Loving;
and love that is unwavering. Love alone can overcome obstacles
however many and mighty. There is no strength more effective than
Purity; no bliss more satisfying than Love; no joy more restoring
than Bhakthi (devotion to God) and no triumph more praiseworthy than
Surrender.
09 September 2003
Man should not fall into the whirlpool of
desires and be carried down into the depths of grief. When breath
starts to gasp, hair turns grey, teeth begin to drop and eyes grow
weak, man's greed to quench the clamour of the senses increases
instead of decreasing! Sathsang (holy company) is the only remedy.
10 September 2003
Man, as a member of society, influences the
people who contact him. His life is turned or twisted by the
standards, modes, and behaviour patterns of the society into which
he is born through the effects of his accumulated actions. The body
and the country are inextricably intertwined. The body is an
encasement for the spirit of man and so too is the country. Use
society for your uplift towards God; try to shape society so that it
will help the uplift of individuals and not turn them away from God.
11 September 2003
Through Sathsang (holy company) you develop
freedom from delusion, and then you develop faith in truth and thus
attain liberation itself. Just as the tame elephants surround the
wild tusker and rope him before taming him, the spiritual minded
will bring the doubter around. The company of the good and the godly
will slowly chasten and cleanse the persons prone to staying away
from the straight path towards self-realization.
12 September 2003
When a sharp axe is used to cut a sandal wood
tree, the sandal wood tree does not feel hurt by the axe, nor does
it get angry at it. On the contrary, the sandal wood tree lends its
fragrance to the axe. This is the quality of good people.
13 September 2003
The company of bad men is the prelude to the
disappearance of wisdom. The company of good men makes wisdom
blossom. Ascetic practices, years of constant recitation of the name,
pilgrimages to holy places and shrines, study of sacred books-these
will not help the aspirant to achieve spiritual victory as much as
communion with the godly and good.
14 September 2003
When you go to a doctor, you must take the
medicine that he prescribes and follow his advice and instructions.
There is no use blaming him if you default. How can he cure you if
you do not drink the mixture or stick to the restictions he has
imposed or regulate your diet according to his advice? Do as I say,
follow My advice and then watch the results.
15 September 2003
Friends must serve as the lids serve the eye.
The 'friend' should be another 'me'. One must experience in equal
depth the joy or the grief of the other. Friends ought to be like
milk and water, for when mixed together and heated, the water
evaporates as steam and the milk laments the separation and boils
over. Thus the only way to calm the milk is to sprinkle a spoon or
two of water on it.
16 September 2003
Today parents are neglected and even disowned.
How can a nation that does not revere those deserving to be revered,
be revered in its turn. However high you may rise, no matter how
rich you may become, if your parents are neglected in distress, your
life has been a tragic waste. If you have no urge to please those
who are very happy when their children show the slightest concern
for their comfort, how can you even hope to please God?
17 September 2003
The earth is a caravanserai where men come and
stay for the night and when dawn breaks they tramp their different
ways. Kith and kin are the words we use for the attachment to the
travellers cultivated in the caravanserai during the short term of
acquaintance. Husband and wife are like two pieces of wood drifting
down a flooded river; they float near each other for some time and
when current comes between, they are parted; each must move on to
the sea at its own rate and in its own time. There is no need to
grieve over the parting of the two.
18 September 2003
Man has been given a hundred years of life and
plenty of work to fill the years with, but you fritter the time in
playful games, in founding and fostering a family. You seem to have
no time for
reciting the Name of the Lord or meditating on His Form. Want of
time is a false excuse. Face the reality and proceed towards the
Truth. When you tread the path of Dharma, imperceptibly you will be
drawn towards the truth, gently and steadily.
19 September 2003
You should gradually get rid of attachments
that lead you astray. But, nowadays, instead of the elimination of
mental agitations, every effort is made to multiply them. The
scriptures have laid down patterns of behaviour, recommended modes
of livelihood, and prescribed social rights and obligations with the
aim to sublimate the instincts. Do not decry that discipline or the
ancient sacred scriptures.
20 September 2003
The world is one vast society. Everyone is
bound to it by the love that draws man to man. This love is deep in
the heart, but it is unrecognised, ignored, doubted, denied and
argued away. It is the secret source of all sympathy and service; it
creates the urge to live in and for society.
21 September 2003
Parents and teachers can earn My Grace only by
becoming good and worthy examples to their sons or daughters or to
their wards and students. You must examine yourselves every moment
whether you are observing the disciplines I have laid down, the
programmes of service I have marked out. That is the way to earn My
Love.
22 September 2003
The home is a temple. The mother is the high
priestess of this House of God. Humility is the incense with which
the house is filled. Reverence is the lamp that is lit, with love as
the oil and faith as the wick. Spend the years of your life
dedicating them for such worship in your homes.
23 September 2003
Children's minds are innocent, tender and
pure. Their minds are apt to grow crooked under the influence of the
sensuous films, the hypocritical atmosphere created by elders, the
lure of glitter and fame. So, the parents and schools have to attach
great importance to discipline of children. But, extremes have to be
avoided at all costs. Disciplinary rules have to be well thought out
and adapted to the age group they wish to correct.
24 September 2003
Teach children not to receive anything for nothing. Let them earn by
hard work the things they seek. Love has first to gladden the home.
The character of children must be made strong and pure. Give them
all the confidence and courage they need to become good, honest,
self-reliant children. It is not enough if they learn something by
which they can earn a living; the manner of living is more important
than the standard of living.
25 September 2003
If you give joy to your parents, your children will be a source of
joy to you in your declining years. Children should grow in the
awareness of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. If no
provision is made for this atmosphere and this teaching, we are
denying them their due. Faith in man involves Faith in God; Faith in
God creates Faith in man. Without faith, man is a creature bereft of
roots; and he dries and withers quickly.
26 September 2003
Parents toil to leave a pile of riches for their children, but they
do not teach them the proper sense of values. Children should be
taught to live like lotuses in the lake, being in the water and yet
unaffected by it. Lotuses cannot survive when out of the water; yet
they will not allow water to enter! Be in the world, but see that
the world is not in you. That is the secret of successful living,
which they do not teach the young.
27 September 2003
Teach your children this glorious and heart-expanding Truth from the
early days of life: the Atma is full and free. It is a wonderful
discovery, a thrilling thought. The Atma is by its very nature full;
fullness need not be attained or accomplished or added to it. That
is why the sages declared that Purity is our very nature and
Fullness is our genuine reality.
28 September 2003
Children are charming saplings, full of promise, who can be made, by
wise care and well-directed love, to blossom into ideal citizens,
able to understand, appreciate and practice the tough discipline
laid down in the ancient wisdom for attaining self-knowledge. The
early years of life are the most crucial, and so the parents have to
share the responsibility for their proper upbringing. The skills,
the attitude, the prejudices and the emotions that make or mar the
future are all built into the foundation of character during those
crucial years.
29 September 2003
Parents should not allow their children to fall away from their
control and wander about without a compass or anchor. Many parents
feed and fondle their children and then in the name of freedom,
leave them to find their own friends and pleasures. They take them
to films regardless of the impressions they create in their tender
minds. They entertain the friends of their children but do not
enquire about their antecedents and habits.
30 September 2003
The thought that arises in the mind, the word that is formed on the
tongue and the act performed by the hand - when these three are in
harmony, they indicate humanness. Nowadays man appears to be man,
but his human-ness is absent, partly because he thinks one way,
speaks another way and acts a third way. Speak what you think, do
what you speak; that is the sign of true manhood. So, you must first
act according to your own advice. Bring about consonance between
your thought, word and deed, and then guide your children.
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