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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 2005
June 1, 2005
Vice breeds disease. Evil thoughts and habits,
bad company and unsuitable food are the main causes of ill-health.
Arogya (good health) and Ananda (happiness) go hand in hand. When
the mind is happy, the body too is free of disease. Evil habits,
which men indulge in, are the chief causes of diseases, physical as
well as mental. Greed affects the mind; disappointment makes man
depressed. Man can justify his existence only by the cultivation of
virtues. Only then does he become a worthy candidate for Godhood.
June 2, 2005
It is essential to cleanse the mind through
regular sadhana (spiritual discipline), to tune the individual to
the infinite will of God, to merge in His Glory. Scholarship or
skill, however deep and varied, have no purifying power. They only
add the alloys of pride and competition. Learned men are not
necessarily good, nor are men with spiritual powers necessarily
above pride, envy and greed. Sathya (Truth), Dharma (Righteousness),
Shanti (Peace) and Prema (Love) are the true qualities of a person
with a pure heart, a heart where God is enshrined and is manifest.
June 3, 2005
One need not search for spiritual power, going
around the world and spending a lot of money. You can stay in your
own house and develop it within yourself. You do not have to run for
it hither and thither. You are not a mere man, but God Himself. Do
not be under the delusion that God is residing somewhere and that
you have to search for Him; God is within you.
June 4, 2005
It is best that you stay away from companions
who drag you to such distractions that weaken and worry you; spend a
few minutes every morning and evening in the silence of your own
home, in His elevating and inspiring company; worship Him mentally,
offer unto Him all the work you do; and you will come out of the
silence, nobler and more heroic than when you went in.
June 5, 2005
You have to busy yourselves with activity in
order to use time and skill to the best advantage. That is your
duty, and duty is God. The dull and the inert (Tamasic) will
hesitate to be active for fear of exhaustion or failure. The
emotional and passionate individuals (Rajasic) will plunge headlong,
craving for quick results and be disappointed when results do not
come in as expected. The persons with balance of mind (Sathwic) will
be active, considering it their duty; success or failure will not
disturb their equanimity. The godly will take up activity as a means
of worshipping God. They leave the fruits of their efforts to God,
as they know they are but instruments in His hands.
June 6, 2005
The human body is like a chariot; the Atma
(Self) 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, which is the very
basis of existence.
June 7, 2005
Live without hating others, condemning others
and seeking faults in others. Sage Vyasa, who composed eighteen
voluminous Puraanas, summarised them all in 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, at least desist
from doing evil. Do not try to discover differences, but instead
discover unity.
June 8, 2005
Sages and saints have known that the most
noteworthy achievement of the senses is the glorification of the
divinity within. One saint said, "These are not eyes but globules of
glass if they cannot earn the vision of God. Yet another said,
"These are not ears but muscular protrusions if they do not relish
the name of God". The world and its attractions may appeal to your
instincts and impulses, but God draws out your Love as no worldly
being can. Develop the inner vision and the habit of listening to
the inner voice; and you are assured of unshakeable peace and
infinite joy.
June 9, 2005
When a tree first shoots forth from the seed,
it comes up as a stem with two incipient leaves. But, later, when it
grows, the trunk is one and the branches many. Each branch may be
thick enough to be called a trunk; but, one should not forget that
it is through that trunk that the roots feed life-giving sap to the
branches. Similarly, it is the one God who feeds the spiritual
hunger of all nations and all faiths through the sustenance of
truth, virtue, humility and sacrifice.
June 10, 2005
Service is God. Why has God endowed man with a
body, a mind and an intellect? Feel and empathise with suffering
through your mind, plan using your intelligence and use the body to
serve those are in need. Offer that act of service to God; worship
Him with that flower. Put into daily practice the ideals that Sai
has been propagating and make them known all over the world by
standing forth as living examples of their greatness.
June 11, 2005
There is no discipline equal to service to
smother the ego and to fill the heart with genuine joy. To condemn
service as demeaning and inferior is to forego these benefits. If a
wave of service sweeps over the land, catching everyone in its
enthusiasm, it will be able to wipe off the mounds of hatred, malice
and greed that infest the world. Attune your hearts so that they
vibrate in sympathy with the woes and joys of your fellowmen and
fill the world with your love.
June 12, 2005
Man has to give up the pursuit of sensory
objects if he seeks to gain lasting peace and joy. Material wealth
brings with it not only joy but also grief. Accumulation of riches,
multiplication of wants - these lead only to alternation between joy
and grief. Attachment is the root of both joy and grief; detachment
is the saviour. Feel that your family, your house and your
possessions are all the Lord's property and you are only the trustee.
June 13, 2005
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 pre-occupation with his own concerns and interests.
Only when man sheds his selfishness can he turn his mind towards God.
June 14, 2005
As a drop of water on a lotus leaf disappears
in no time, even so, we should know that our life is transient and
will disappear in no time. The world is full of sorrow, the human
body is full of disease and our life is full of turbulent thoughts.
Under these circumstances, it is possible to live in a peaceful
manner only by following the Divine path and getting over all our
worldly attachments.
June 15, 2005
When you scatter seeds on the surface of the
soil they do not germinate. You have to plant them inside the soil.
So too, My words, if scattered on the surface, will not germinate
and grow into a tree of knowledge and yield the fruit of wisdom.
Plant it in the heart, water the plant with Love, and nourish it
with faith and courage. Keep off pests with Bhajan (devotional
singing) and Satsang (spiritual congregation), so that you may
finally reap its benefit.
June 16, 2005
The Lord is a Mountain of Prema (Love); any
amount can be drawn from it without exhausting His Plenty. He is an
Ocean of Mercy without a limiting shore. Bhakthi (devotion) is the
easiest way to win His Grace and also to realise that He pervades
everything; in fact, is everything! Sharanaagathi (total surrender),
leaving everything to His Will, is the highest form of Bhakthi.
June 17, 2005
In this world, which is impermanent and ever
changing, the Immanent Power of the Lord is the only permanent and
fixed entity. In order to realise the Eternal and the True, one has
perforce to attach oneself to that Source and Sustenance. There is
no escape from this path. It is the destiny of one and all,
irrespective of age or scholarship, clime or caste, gender or status.
June 18, 2005
There are four types of people: the 'dead',
who deny the Lord and declare that they alone exist, independent,
free, self-regulating and self-directed; the 'sick', who call upon
the Lord whenever some calamity befalls them or whenever they feel
temporarily deserted by the usual sources of succour; the 'dull',
who know that God is the eternal companion, but who remember it only
off and on, when the idea presents itself powerfully; and lastly,
the 'healthy', who have steady faith in the Lord and who live in His
comforting presence always.
June 19, 2005
The greatest obstacles on the path of
surrender are Ahamkaara (feeling of 'I') and Mamakaara (feeling of
'mine'). These feelings have been inhering to your personality since
ages, embedding themselves deeper and deeper with the experience of
every succeeding life. They can be removed only with the detergents
of discrimination and renunciation. Bhakthi is the water to wash
away this dirt of ages, and the soap of Japa, Dhyaana and Yoga
(repetition of God's name, meditation and communion) will help to
remove it quicker and more effectively.
June 20, 2005
Wipe out the root causes of anxiety, fear and
ignorance. Then only can the true personality of man shine forth.
Anxiety is removed by faith in the Lord; the faith that tells you
that whatever happens is for the best and that the Lord's Will be
done. Quiet acceptance is the best armour against anxiety. Sorrow
springs from egoism, the feeling that one does not deserve to be
treated so badly. When egoism goes, sorrow disappears. Ignorance is
just the mistaken identity of the body as the Self.
June 21, 2005
The greatest short-coming of man today is the
absence of Atma Vichaara (the inquiry into the Self). That is the
root cause of all this Ashanti (restlessness). This Atma Vichaara is
described in the Upanishads through an analogy. Just as a river's
flow is regulated by bunds and directed to the sea, so too the
Upanishads regulate and restrain the senses, the mind and the
intellect, and help one to merge one's individuality in the
Absolute. Study the Upanishads with a view to put this advice into
practice.
June 22, 2005
Many pray to God all over the world. They pray
for the realisation of worldly desires of one kind or the other.
This is not the right kind of prayer. You should pray to God for His
grace and love. That love is everlasting. God is Sath-Chith-Ananda
(Being-Awareness-Bliss). So, pray to Him to confer that bliss on
you. God's bliss is everlasting, whereas worldly pleasures are
transient. Only he is a true devotee who prays for God's love and
bliss.
June 23, 2005
When you meditate, the mind often runs after
something else and tends to get diverted along other channels. You
then have to plug that diversion by means of the Name and the Form
and ensure that the steady flow of your thoughts towards the Lord is
not interrupted; if it happens again, use the Name and the Form
again, quickly. Do not allow the mind to go beyond the twin bunds,
the Name on one side and the Form on the other! When your mind
wanders away from the recital of the Name, take it to the picture of
the Form. When it wanders away from the picture, lead it to the
Name. Let it dwell either on the sweetness of the Name or the beauty
of the Form. Treated thus, the mind can be easily tamed.
June 24, 2005
There is no use arguing and quarrelling among
yourselves about the nature of divinity. Examine and experience,
then you will know the Truth. Do not proclaim before you are
convinced; be silent while you are still undecided or engaged in
evaluating. Discard all evil in you before you can attempt to
understand the mystery. And, when faith sprouts, fence it with
discipline and self-control, so that the tender shoot might be
guarded against cattle, the motley crowd of cynics and unbelievers.
When your faith grows into a big tree, those very cattle can lie
down in the shade that it will spread.
June 25, 2005
It is the mind which makes or mars a man. If
it is immersed in things of the world, it leads to bondage; if it
treats the world as but temporary, then by that Vairaagya
(detachment) it becomes free and light. Train the mind not to get
attached to transient things of the world. Do not hold before it the
tinsels of worldly fame and riches; lead it towards the lasting joys
derived from the divine spring inside you. The mind itself will then
become the Guru, for it will lead you to the goal, having tasted the
sweetness of Shravana, Manana and Nidhidhyaasana (listening,
recapitulating and internalizing).
June 26, 2005
Do not think that only those who worship a
picture or image with pompous paraphernalia are devotees. Whoever
walks straight along the moral path, whoever acts as he speaks and
speaks as he has seen, whoever melts at another's woe and exults at
another's joy is a devotee, perhaps a greater devotee. It is Bhakthi
(devotion) that makes the prayer reach God, not the festoons, the
fanfare, the heap of flowers or the feast offerings.
June 27, 2005
Truth can reflect itself in the intellect only
when it is clarified by 'tapas' (penance). Tapas means all acts
undertaken with noble motives and all acts indicating yearning for
the spirit, repenting for past mistakes, staunch determination to
adhere to virtue, self-control and unyielding adherence to
equanimity in the face of success or failure. 'Taapam' means heat,
burning intensity and earnestness of endeavour. It is tapas that
fosters renunciation and discipline.
June 28, 2005
You do not see the foundations of a
skyscraper. Can you, therefore, argue that it simply sits on the
ground? The foundations of this life are laid deep in the past, in
lives already lived by you. This structure has been shaped by the
ground plan of those lives. It is the unseen foundation that decides
the structure and design of the entire edifice.
June 29, 2005
What is realization? The moment you see your
inner beauty and are so filled with it that you forget all else, you
are free from all bonds; you know that you are all Beauty, all
Glory, all Power; the reflection of Shivam (God) in the mirror of
Prakruthi (nature) is Jiva (the individual).
June 30, 2005
Love is a ceaseless flow of Divine effulgence.
Sages call this Love, Atma. This Atma, which is full of Love, is
shining in all hearts. Love, Atma and heart are synonyms for God.
For such pure Love, there cannot be any differences based on mine
and thine. This Love is selfless. Where there is confidence, there
is Love. Where there is Love, there is Peace. Where there is Peace,
there is Truth. Where there is Truth, there is Bliss. Where there is
Bliss, there is God.
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