1.Imitation is a sign of cowardice, not a quality that can ensure progress. How can you draw inspiration for uplifting yourself, if you are engaged in hating yourself and devaluing your achievements? You should feel no sense of shame when you bring back to memory your forefathers and the teachers of the past who built the culture that nurtured you. Instead, you ought to feel proud of them. Like them, manifest the power that lies in self-exertion! Do not resort to the weak stratagem of imitating others. Instead absorb the good qualities that others may possess. We plant a seed in the soil. Then we supply it with the ingredients it needs—water, air, and manure. The seed sprouts. It grows into a sapling. It becomes at last a huge tree. You will notice that it does not become either soil or manure, or air or water. These it makes use of, but sticks to its own nature and grows into a tree. May you too live like that!
2.How do you accumulate the wealth of character? You cannot exist without activity, so you must, out of necessity, act through good qualities. You must curb all desires and become free. The mind filled with good qualities will help you in this process, for it will bear other’s prosperity gladly. It will give up doing injury; it will seek opportunities to help, heal, and foster. It will not only suffer; it will also pardon. It will not incline towards the false; it will be on the alert to speak the truth. It will remain unruffled by lust, greed, anger, and conceit; it will be free from delusion. It will always seek the welfare of the world. From such a mind, will flow an uninterrupted stream of love.
3.We have much to learn from others. There is no need about doubt this fact. Those who refuse to learn this, declare themselves fools. You can imbibe from others anything that can promote your spiritual advancement in line with your own moral path or dharma. You must live as you, not as someone else. Be immersed in your God, in your own beliefs and feelings, in the bliss that springs from your own heart, and in the delight derived from your sadhana (spiritual practices). If others try to prevent you from doing this by weaving different plans or employing several contrivances, resist them boldly. Do not deny yourself the Divine Awareness and the Divine Ecstasy. Pull down the barriers that stand in the way and obstruct the free flow of divinity, sweetness and strength from the depth of your heart.
4.When your mind matures and attains fruition, it easily becomes free of all qualities. It becomes placid, calm, and pure. It effortlessly merges in the one and only Atma. Each person has the unique chance to taste the inner peace that such a mind can grant, but, unfortunately, most are strangers to the unshakeable joy and equanimity that is their birthright. Meditation is the only island of refuge in the ocean of life for all beings tossed on the waves of desire, doubt, dread, and despair. This Vedantic truth must be present in the mind, even while one is engaged in the mundane material world!
Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba
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