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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 2004
June 1, 2004
Some people may laugh at sankirtana
(devotional singing) and scoff at it as mere show, and recommend
quiet meditation instead. But participating in bhajan singing in
public helps in removing egoism. For example, a person may sweep the
room when no one is looking. But, to perform the same act in the
presence of others requires some mastery over the ego. Nama
Sankirtana (repetition of the Lord's name) will keep the mind free
from distracting thoughts. So sing aloud the glory of the Lord and
charge the atmosphere with divine adoration.
June 2, 2004
The Gayathri is considered as the essence of
the vedas. It has the subtle power of removing evil tendencies and
implanting virtuous habits. Gayathri means 'that which protects when
recited'. It is the torch of jnana (wisdom). This mantra has been
given to you as a third eye to reveal to you that inner vision by
which you may realise Brahman.
June 3, 2004
Singing bhajans with intense yearning for God
helps to purify the atmosphere. Man today, is forced to breathe the
air polluted by vibrations of violence, hatred, cruelty and
wickedness. The vibrations of Nama Sankirtana (repetition of the
Lord's name) can cleanse the atmosphere and render it pure, calm and
ennobling.
June 4, 2004
When the devotee feels that he is not close to
God, the fault lies with the devotee. Repent for the errors that you
have committed and resolve never to repeat them. Pray to the Lord to
be able to carry out your duties and resolutions and to be able to
improve your conduct. Bhakthi (devotion) involves complete
dedication without even a wisp of ego remaining. Bhakthi softens the
mind and keeps it receptive to higher emotions and purifying
impulses.
June 5, 2004
Strive - that is your duty. Yearn - that is
your task. Struggle - that is your assignment. If only you do these,
sincerely and steadily, God cannot keep back for long the reward of
Realization. The river strives, yearns and struggles to merge with
the sea from where it has originated. It has that consummation ever
present in its consciousness. It attempts to make itself pure and
pellucid so that it may be welcomed back by its source.
June 6, 2004
How can it be said that all are equal? It is
because every being has the same chaithanya (consciousness) within.
When the sun rises, not all lotuses in the lake bloom; only the
grown buds open their petals. The others await their chance. It is
the same with men. Differences do exist because of unripeness,
though all fruits have to ripen and fall off someday. Every being
has to reach the goal, however slow they walk or however tortuous
the road.
June 7, 2004
In order to promote harmony, the first rule
you must follow is the control of the tongue. Do not give immediate
expression to all your thoughts; select, ponder and then speak out.
Speak softly, sweetly and without malice in your heart; speak as if
you are addressing the Sai who resides in everyone.
June 8, 2004
There are three lines along which efforts have
to be directed - (i) spiritual exercises and discipline (ii) the
cultivation of detachment and (iii) the development of confidence in
one's self. Without these three, life is a wearisome and wasteful
journey. Give up, renounce - that is the virtue you need for
spiritual progress. It is not the value of the thing given up that
counts; it is the loftiness of the feeling behind the act.
June 9, 2004
Do not pour into other's ears your tales of
woe and worry; carry a smile on your face so that everyone who sees
you can catch the exhilaration. You must not only love others, but
you must be so good that others may love you. A man is judged by the
nature of his actions; if they are good then he is considered a good
man and if they are bad, he is considered a wicked man.
June 10, 2004
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 preoccupation with one's own concerns and interests.
Only when man sheds his selfishness can he turn his mind towards
God.
June 11, 2004
The spark of Love in you has to be cherished
and fed, so that it may reach God; then every act of yours will be
Divine and the reaction you get from the outside world will be
sweetened with Prema. You love the God in all beings and the God in
all beings responds with Love. Love God, though tribulation may be
your lot. Love Him, though you may be refused and rebuked; for it is
only in the crucible of travail that the metal is purified and
cleared of blemish.
June 12, 2004
The human body is like a chariot; the Atma 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, that is the very basis of
existence.
June 13, 2004
Man loses his status of humanness through acts
that would shame even beasts. He does not strive towards revealing
and manifesting his latent divinity. However, this is not as
disastrous a failing as sliding back into the animal nature from
which he has evolved. If he keeps on with his human attributes and
capacities, that will serve him well enough.
June 14, 2004 Live without
hating others, condemning others and seeking faults in others.
Vyaasa, who composed eighteen voluminous Puraanas summarised them
all in one single line of 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 atleast desist from doing evil. Do
not try to discover differences but instead discover unity.
June 15, 2004
If only men knew the path to permanent joy and
peace, they would not wander distracted among the bylanes of sensual
pleasure. Just as the joy felt in dreams disappears on waking up,
the joys felt in the waking stage disappear when jnana (wisdom)
awakens within us. The Upanishads say, "Wake up, Arise! Awake!" Time
is a succession of fleeting moments. While the present moment is
available, put it to best use. When you die, you must die as a man
who has realised that he is Divine. That is the proper consummation
of all the years spent in the human form.
June 16, 2004
Dharma purifies the mind and leads you to God.
It creates a taste for the Name and Form of God. When you love the
name and form of God, you will naturally respect and obey the
command of God. Have the Name on the tongue and Form in the eye; and
the demon of unending desire will fly away from your mind, leaving
joy and contentment within. This kind of constant contemplation on
the indwelling God will promote Love for all beings. You will then
see good in others and you will strive to do good to others.
June 17, 2004
Those who deny God are denying themselves. All
have Love in their hearts, in some form or the other, either towards
children or the poor or they work for the good of others. That Love
is God, the spark of the Divine in them. They have Ananda (Bliss)
however small or temporary, and that is a spark of God. They have
peace, detachment and sympathy. All these are the reflections of the
Divine in the mirror of their minds.
June 18, 2004 Everyday when
you sleep, where are you? Who are you? Your senses are inoperative;
your intelligence is in abeyance; your mind creates a world of its
own and, after playing in it for some time, it lapses into
inactivity. This state of deep sleep is the nearest you reach in
your journey to Samadhi. Live in the 'Atmatathwam' (spiritual
consciousness), that will ensure Shanti (peace). With the poison of
Raaga (attachment) and Dwesha (hatred) inside you, how can you be
pronounced healthy? If you experience the 'Atmatathwam', you become
one with Bhagawan (God) Himself.
June 19, 2004
Naamasmarana (chanting God's Name) is the
process by which an attitude of dedication can be cultivated and
confirmed. When confronted by calamity, you must attach yourself to
this sadhana (spiritual practice) even more firmly, instead of
losing faith in it and getting slack. The drug should not be given
up when it is most needed. The pity is that, when the first
disappointment confronts you, you lose courage and confidence and
give up the name of God.
June 20, 2004
Liberation is just the awareness of Truth, the
falling off of the scales of delusion from the eye. It is not a
privilige of select souls nor is it a closed monopoly of expert
Saadhakas (spiritual seekers). Like the river losing its form, its
name and its taste in the sea, liberation dissolves the name and
form, aptitudes and attitudes. You are no longer a separate,
particular individual.
June 21, 2004 Bhakthi
(devotion) is defined as a means of discovering the Divine reality
within each being. Four steps are laid down in the scriptures to
help man succeed in this effort- discrimination between the
permanent and the ephemeral; withdrawal from the process of catering
to the senses; positive control of the feelings, thoughts and
pursuits, and incessant yearning for liberation from all bonds.
Bhakthi is the urge which manifests as all these four endeavours. It
directs man to have God ever in mind and to cultivate love for God
within him.
June 22, 2004
All man are made of the same divine essence.
Service to man will help your Divinity to blossom, for it will
gladden your heart and make you feel that life has been worthwhile.
Service to man is service to God, for He is in everyman, nay, every
living being, stone and stump. Dedicate your talents to God; let
every act be a flower free from creeping worms of envy and egoism,
and full of the fragrance of love and sacrifice.
June 23, 2004
Devotion fosters the highest virtue; it is the
most precious treasure, it is the truest path, the only way to God.
Man must live immersed in Bhakthi (devotion) for the sake of
Bhakthi. Bhakthi is Love of the purest and the noblest variety. Such
love is the breath that sustains life, that supports the souls in
its effort to merge in the Super-soul. The years of life spent
without light of Love are years wasted.
June 24, 2004
Whatever things we do with this body, it leads
to rebirth. Any actions, good or bad, can be compared to seeds. In
order to avoid sowing such seeds, we should do all actions without
desire. All actions should be done, in and only for the pleasure of
God. If you are cleaning your room, think that you are doing that
for cleaning your heart, the shrine of God. When you help or harm
others, realise that you are doing it to yourself. Then you will
never let yourself harm anyone.
June 25, 2004
It is natural that man desires to reach the
presence of the Almighty to see Him and be ever with Him, for deep
within the human heart is the urge to reach the place from which one
has come, to attain the joy one has lost, the glory which one has
missed. Man is himself Divine and so it is a matter of the deep
calling unto the deep, of the part yearning for the whole.
June 26, 2004
Many spiritual aspirants are under a
misconception today. If you ask them why they are doing various
forms of Saadhana (spiritual practices), they reply that they are
doing them in order to merge with God. Do not think that you are
human and that you have to reach the state of the Divine. Know that
you have descended from God, as a human being, and that eventually
you will go back to your source. Do not regard God as someone
separate and distinct from you, God is very much within you.
June 27, 2004
The first step to direct knowledge of God is
spiritual practice; the first step in spiritual practice is service
to the Guru performed in total faith and surrender. At the same
time, the responsibility of the Guru is to instruct the disciple on
the nature of God, to instruct continuously and in simple ways. When
the disciple grasps this instruction, it becomes indirect knowledge.
This indirect knowledge can be transformed into direct knowledge by
constant recapitulation and by constantly turning it over in the
mind.
June 28, 2004 The devotee
regards both, persons of high character and persons of low character
as actors in the Divine play. When he insults or injures anyone, he
is, in fact inflicting insult and injury on the God he adores. He
cannot reap the harvest of grace or the bliss of the Atma if he sows
spiritual ardour in a heart full of the weeds of greed and hate. The
basic moral prescription for the devotee who aspires to be near and
dear to the Avatar (Divine Incarnation) is: Worship God and offer
love to Him in every living being.
June 29, 2004 Like a student
leaving college once the degree is awarded, human beings attain
liberation once the Truth is realised. They can leave behind them
their college with all the study that it entails. But the degree
must be earned. Why are you averse to making the effort which is
involved? Instead, you run after one teacher or another, hoping to
avail yourself of his victory. If he has achieved, of what value
will that be to you?
June 30, 2004
See God in everyone you meet. See God in
everything you handle. His majesty is immanent in all that is
sentient and insentient. This whole creation is an expression of His
majesty. God has His hands in all handiwork, His feet at all
heights, His eyes beyond all horizons, His face before every form.
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