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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 2004
September 1, 2004
God is beyond all notions of good and bad,
right and wrong. These are only earthly measures by which the
temporary objects are weighed and judged. He has no Form, no
dualities, no preferences, no prejudices and no predilections. To
say that He is Sathyaswaroopa, Jnanaswaroopa or Anandaswaroopa
(embodiment of Truth, Wisdom and Bliss) is also not correct. For He
has no 'Swaroopa' (Form) or 'Swabhava' (characteristics). He is
Sathya (Truth), Jnana (Wisdom) and Ananda (Bliss). That is the
experience of those who have tasted Ananda.
September 2, 2004 - Guru Poornima
Man can be happy with much less than he seems
to think essential. When some article is with you for some little
time, you feel it is indispensable and you do not know how to live
without it. Like the silkworm, you weave a cocoon for yourself, out
of your fancy. Do not allow costly habits to grow, costly from the
monetary as well as the spiritual point of view. Watch your likes
and dislikes with a vigilant ye and discard anything that threatens
to encumber your path.
September 3, 2004 Place the
evil qualities lurking within you on the altar of your mind and
sacrifice them as an offering to the deity installed therein. Though
born as a human, man is burdened by animal instincts and impulses
that have attached themselves to him during his previous lives as an
animal. He has passed through many an animal existence and each has
left its mark on his mental make-up, like a scar on the skin when a
wound has healed.
September 4, 2004
Life is a pilgrimage to God. The road lies
before you; but unless you take the first step forward and move
further on, how can you reach your destination? Start with courage,
faith, joy and steadiness. You are bound to succeed. The mind and
the intellect are the two bullocks tied to the cart of the inner
man. The bullocks are not used to the road of Sathya (Truth), Dharma
(Righteousness), Shanti (Peace) and Prema (Love) and so they drag
the cart along the road familiar to them, namely, falsehood,
injustice, worry and hatred. You have to train them to take the
better road so that they may not bring disaster upon themselves, the
cart or the passengers travelling in it.
September 5, 2004
The Divine is omnipresent. The entire cosmos
is permeated and sustained by this divine energy. Everyone should
endeavour to experience the Divine. Man must make the effort and he
is bound to realise the experience. The necessary sacrifice must be
made. All the bad qualities have to be renounced the moment they
invade the mind. True devotion means elimination of all the animal
tendencies in man. Man should seek to realise the eternal Divine
within him. That is the primary purpose of human life.
September 6, 2004
The message of the life of Lord Sri Krishna is
the supremacy of the Love Principle. This message is all that the
world needs. Krishna is the embodiment of love. This love can be
understood only through love. It is strong, brilliant and
unbreakable like a diamond. It is extremely precious. If you want to
secure such divine love, your love for God must be equally strong.
For, you can cut diamond only with diamond. Love begets love. Hatred
can only beget hatred. Therefore, if you want to foster love, you
have to get rid of hatred, jealousy and anger.
September 7, 2004
Divine Life is based on Sathwa Guna (quality
of calm serenity), which must be cultivated. This guna can be built
only upon Saathwik food (natural food that is moderate in flavour),
which promotes health, strength, lightness of body and spirit, and
earnestness of endeavour. There is no use distributing Adhyaatma
rasa (nectar of spirituality) to underfed and weak people; give Anna
rasa (food) first; make them strong enough to entertain right
beliefs and high ideals; physical hunger must first be appeased by
simple Saathwik food.
September 8, 2004
One does not have to search for God by
travelling around the world. God is not outside oneself. If one
thinks that God is separate from him, it may be so for him. But if
one transcends all thoughts, one then becomes God oneself. All
thoughts are illusions, so by giving them up, one becomes God.
Therefore, give up thoughts. Come forward and enjoy the divinity
that you really are.
September 9, 2004 Buddhi
(intellect) revels in discussion and disputation; once you yield to
the temptation of dialectics, it takes a long time for you to escape
from its shackles and efface it and enjoy the bliss which comes from
its nullification. You must all the while be aware of the limitation
of reason. Logic and deduction must yield their place to devotion.
Buddhi can help you along only some distance along the Godward path;
the rest is illuminated by intuition.
September 10, 2004 We cannot
describe God in words. We have to experience the bliss of realising
Him as the core of our being. If we want Ananda (bliss), we must
walk along the path of Atma (soul). When we work in the direction of
Atma, the diversity is removed and equanimity is established. The
world will vanish when we keep in mind the creator of the world.
September 11, 2004
The Vedas have held forth the message of
people living in amity, striving together for common ends and
sharing the fruits of their co-operative efforts. They have also
proclaimed the omnipresence of the Divine. The cosmic form of the
divine encompasses every being in the universe. Forgetting the truth
- "Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagath", that the Divine is immanent in the
Cosmos, people search for the Divine. Every human being is a spark
of the Divine. Hence, there should be no ill-will towards anyone.
September 12, 2004 "Sathyam
Brooyath, Priyam Brooyath, Na Brooyath Sathyam Apriyam". Speak the
truth, speak what is pleasant and never speak what is true but not
pleasing. Truth is of the highest importance whether we consider
morality, worldly life or spiritual progress. From the ethical point
of view, you have to speak the truth. In the context of worldly
life, you have to speak what is pleasing. From the spiritual point
of view, you have to avoid what is not pleasing even if it is true.
One should not utter words that cause excitement, but speak the
truth which is both pleasing and beneficial.
September 13, 2004
Love exists for love's sake and nothing else.
It is spontaneous and spreads delight. Everything is permeated by
love. Love can conquer anything. Selfless, pure, unalloyed love
leads man to God. Selfish and constricted love binds man to the
world. Unable to comprehend the pure and sacred nature of love, man
today is a prey to endless worries because of his attachment to
worldly objects. Man's primary duty is to understand the truth about
the Love principle. Once he understands the nature of love, he will
not go astray.
September 14, 2004
You must realise that the Divine current that
flows and functions in every living being is the one Universal
Entity. When you desire to enter the mansion of God, you are
confronted by two closed doors - the desire to praise yourself and
the desire to defame others. The doors are bolted by envy; and there
is also the huge lock of egoism preventing entry; so if you are
earnest, you have to resort to the key of Prema (Love) and open the
locks of egoism, remove the bolt of envy and only then will the
doors be thrown open to you.
September 15, 2004
The Bhagavad Gita advises 'Karmasanyaasa',
that is to say, performance of action without attachment to the
fruits thereof. There are karmas (actions) which have to be
performed as one's duties, according to one's status in the society.
And if these are done in the proper spirit, they will not bind one
at all. Undertake all deeds as actors would in a play, keeping your
identity separate and not attaching yourself too much to your role.
Remember that the whole thing is just a play and the Lord has
assigned to you a part; act out your part well; there your duty
ends.
September 16, 2004
Your child gives you great joy by its play and
prattle, but when it interferes with your work or teases you when
you are otherwise engaged, you get very angry with it. It is a
source of joy as well as grief. There is nothing which can give
unmixed joy; even if there is, when it is lost, it brings about
sorrow. This is in the very nature of things; so try to correct the
very source of joy and sorrow - the mind; control it and train it to
see the real nature of the objective world, which attracts and
repels you by turns. That is the real fruit of education.
September 17, 2004
There were two parrots on a tree. A hunter
trapped them and sold them. One to a low, cruel butcher and the
other to a sage who was running an ashram (hermitage) to teach the
Vedas. After a few years, he was surprised to find that one bird
swore very foully, while the other recited the glory of the Lord in
a sweet musical tone which captivated the listeners. Such is the
effect of the environment; so always seek and secure Sathsang
(company of good and holy people).
September 18, 2004 Man is
bound by three tendencies. The first is Kama (the longing to
possess). When that longing fails, Krodha (anger) raises its hood.
When the desire is fulfilled, the third tendency Lobha (greed)
overtakes him. Ganesha's vehicle is the mouse. The mouse is a
creature that is led, even to the point of destruction, by Vaasana
(the sense of smell). Men too, are victims of Vaasana (preferences
and predilections stamped on our minds during the past lives).
Ganesha smothers and suppresses these Vaasanas which misdirect man
and lead him to misfortune. However, if one's desire is beneficial,
the Divine will shower his Grace. His Grace is available for all who
seek good and godly goals.
September 19, 2004
As long as you worship the Lord with form, you
use certain flowers such as roses, marigolds and jasmine, although
the body that performs the worship and the flowers which you use are
all impermanent. But if you want to worship the formless God in your
heart, then the flowers you use are different; they are the flowers
of non-violence, of love and compassion, of charity and sacrifice.
To elevate yourself to the formless principle, you will have to
cultivate these flowers of the heart and use them in your worship.
Then you will experience the ineffable and permanent joy of the
spirit.
September 20, 2004
Man is consciousness incarnate. Man is the
highest object in creation. Hence, he should not become a creature
of instinct like animals. Man should progress from the human to the
Divine. It is not the world that binds man. It has neither eyes to
see nor hands to grasp. Man is a prisoner of his own thoughts and
desires. In his attachment to the ephemeral and the perishable, man
forgets his inherent Divinity and does not realize that everything
in the universe has come from the Divine and cannot exist without
the power of the Divine.
September 21, 2004 Human life
is a journey from 'I' to 'We'. This journey is subtle and the goal
is very near, but man takes many births to reach the destination.
Just as you change your dress, so too you have to change your body
one day or the other. That is why it is said, "Death is the dress of
life". That which is responsible for birth is responsible for death
too. This body is like a passing cloud. So long as there is life in
the body, use it in the service of others. Engage yourself in
service till the last breath. Service to man is service to God. Have
control over your senses; without this discipline all your service
will be futile.
September 22, 2004
Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient and
omnipotent, but ignores His presence in himself. Many venture to
describe the attributes of God and proclaim Him to be such and such,
but these are mere guesses and a reflection of their own
predilections and preferences. Who can affirm anything about God?
Each one can acquire from the vast expanse of the ocean only as much
as can be contained in the vessel he carries to its shore. From that
quantity, they can grasp but little of that immensity.
September 23, 2004
People suffer because they have all kinds of
unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfil 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. If you look
upon everything with the wisdom derived from the inner vision, then
attachment will slide away and you will see everything with greater
clarity and with a glory suffused with Divine splendour.
September 24, 2004
Men in their ignorance ask the question, "If
God is omnipresent and all-pervasive, why is He not visible to us?"
When the sun shines, clouds that are formed by the sun's heat hide
the rays of the sun. When the sun is not visible because of the
clouds, can you say that there is no sun? When a strong wind blows,
the clouds are dispelled and the sun is visible again. Similarly,
when the winds of love and faith blow, the clouds of doubt and
egoism are scattered and God reveals Himself. Though God is
omnipresent, man's lack of faith and his self-conceit prevent him
from seeing God. To get rid of this disbelief and egoism, certain
spiritual disciplines have to be observed.
September 25, 2004
In human society today, egoism is rampant.
Ostentation is ubiquitous. Whatever one's scholarship or wealth, as
long as there is egoism, God's grace will not flow. God's grace will
be showered on those who have humility and discipline. Humility is
essential for securing God's grace. Revere your elders. Be content
with what you have. Develop goodwill towards all. Bear no ill will
towards anyone. When you desire that all should love you, you should
equally love all.
September 26, 2004
A true spiritual aspirant will have a
reverential attitude towards the duty he is entrusted with. He will
carry out every task assigned to him as an act of worship by which
the Lord will be pleased. Duty is God, work is worship. Worship is
not a uniform that is to be donned and doffed at stated hours of the
day. Render every thought into a flower, worthy to be held in His
fingers; render every deed into a fruit, full of the sweet juice of
love, fit to be placed in His hand; render every tear holy and pure,
fit to wash His Lotus Feet.
September 27, 2004
People aspire for Mukthi (liberation). They
have no idea what constitutes liberation. Man seeks liberation from
the maladies of the body, the senses, the mind, the intellect and
the Antahkarana (internal motivator). All these are no doubt
necessary, but liberation in the ultimate sense consists in
liberation from the cycle of birth and death. This means that one
should redeem one's present life so that one is free from rebirth.
September 28, 2004 The way in
which one should benefit from the Avatar is to watch His every step,
observe His actions and activities, follow the guiding principle of
which His life is a demonstration. Imbibe His love, His compassion
and His wisdom. Man has become artificial, crooked and twisted. He
has left behind his natural ways and made his mind a lumber-room for
worries, anxieties and fears. He can live on much less, with much
greater joy for himself and others. If only he remembers that he is
a spark of the divine, he will be more loving and helpful.
September 29, 2004 You are all
one irrespective of the countries you belong to. Bulbs may vary, but
the current is the same. Likewise, nationalities and personalities
may vary, but the principle of the Atma is one and the same in all.
Therefore, give up all differences based on caste, religion and
nationality and spread the message of unity. Nations are many, but
the earth is one. Jewels are many, but gold is one. Stars are many,
but sky is one. Bodies are many, but breath is one. You can
experience bliss only when you render service keeping in mind the
unity of all beings.
September 30, 2004
As is your vision, so is the world. It is
foolish to try to change the world. Shape yourself as the embodiment
of peace. Correct your vision to see divinity everywhere, then that
awareness will transmute every word, thought and deed of yours into
a benediction. Cleanse the heart by listening to spiritual
discourses, by seeking the company and comradeship of the righteous
and by cultivating goodness of character and sweetness of
disposition. Fill your hearts with the sweet, fragrant waters of
Prema (love). Then every act and word of yours will be sweet and
fragrant.
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