Thought for the Day

Seeing one's own reality is the opening of the doors of liberation; for this, the mirror of the heart has to be prepared by coating the back of the heart with sathya and dharma (Truth and Righteousness). Otherwise, the image will not appear. In every act of yours, if you observe truth and justice, then you can see your own reality revealed. You may say that the burden of the past acts and their inevitable consequences have to be borne; but, the Grace of the Lord can burn that burden in a flash; the revelation of reality will, in a moment, save you from that burden. If you see yourself in all and all in you, then, you have known the reality. Therefore you have to develop the same quantity and quality of Love that you have for Me, towards all others.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

You need not learn all the shlokas (verses) and the commentaries of the scriptures by heart or engage in contest with other scholars and exhibit your scholarship. It is enough even if you put one verse that suits your spiritual stage and appeals to you the most, into practice. The first step will itself take you nearer to the second step and the second will make the third step easier, and so on until the end. Of what avail is medicine, if it is poured into the ear? It has to be taken in, so that it might act and strengthen the blood stream and restore health. Similarly, there is no use in listening to spiritual discourses for hours. Take the lesson in. Take it to heart and put it into practice. Apply it in daily life. Realize the Divinity in you, that is the lesson.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

Everyone is anxious to avoid old age and death; it is human nature to be anxious. But of what avail is mere anxiety? Your conduct and behaviour should be in accordance with your objective. If you have sincere yearning and place your full trust and faithfully surrender to the Lord, He will melt the fog of grief by the rays of His Grace. If you place your trust on the objects of this world, the consequent grief will never end, nor can they be ended by anyone other than the Lord. Serve the Master of maya (illusion), the Designer of all this dreamland, rather than the dream itself.

Bagavan sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

Religion (called matham in Sanskrit) is based on the urge that moves the ‘mind’ (mathi). If the urge is divine, we have a divine religion. If it is bestial, then the things held lovable and desirable will be bestial too. Join the particular to the Universal, the limited to the Unlimited, the river to the Sea - this is the process called Yoga. You can accomplish this through any path, devotion, wisdom or action. The Geetha, which explains these paths, was itself the result of Arjuna’s surrender. You must develop this attitude of 'merging' with the divine in all that you do, this attitude of dedication and surrender to His Will. This is the best means of realising Him.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

The goal of every life is knowing the Supreme, that is, attaining liberation; there can be no second aim. You are endowed with life, not for the purpose of building bungalows, acquisition of estates, accumulation of wealth, addition of progeny, earning of titles or ascent into higher rungs of social life. One’s greatness does not depend on these. The sweetest success in life lies in the winning of permanent bliss and perennial escape from grief and agitation. You are children of immortality. The heritage of immortality must be recognised and experienced; it must be won back. The bonds of name and form are temporary and must be removed. They are not genuine natural characteristics of the individual soul. Escape from grief and joy for a brief period of time is not a sign of real liberation. Real wisdom consists in recognising that you are pure bliss; bliss that persists from the past into the present and the future.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Transforms yourself and sublimate your desires

The body is but an instrument for a high purpose - the realization of the Divine splendour that fills the Universe, of which you are a fraction. Use all the talents of your senses, intelligence, and memory for this goal. Transform yourself and sublimate your desires. Let higher and nobler purposes always overrule the lower ones. Like the donkey that carries sandalwood without knowing anything more than its weight, you too carry the burden of the worldly worries, without being aware of the fragrance that you can get from the very burden on your back. The senses will drag you away from the higher purpose, but keep them under strict control by rigorous training. Without mastery over the senses, all elaborate ritual worships, hours of intense meditation and vows that you observe will yield no fruit.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Suffuse your life with love and round it off with love

God incarnates for the sake of redemption of mankind and not for His own sake. He comes down to tell humanity its divine origin and to exhort people to return to God by following the Principle of Love. Through love you can achieve anything. It is this message that has to be understood today - the role of the Avatar in leading mankind through love to a Godly life. Every human being is an incarnation of the Divine. The Divine dwells in every being. Every moment marks the Lord's advent, because human beings are being born continually. Therefore, dedicate every moment to the thoughts of God. When you do this, in due course you will experience the Divine. You will be free from delusions and be divinised. Man is born to merge in the grace of the Divine and not to immerse oneself in mundane pleasures. Suffuse your life with love and round it off with love.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Know you duty and do them as best as you can, consistently

1.Know your duty and do them as best as you can, consistently. Tend your parents with love, speak the truth and act virtuously. When you have spare time, repeat the Name of the Lord, with the form that pleases you the most in your mind. Never indulge in talking ill of others or trying to discover faults in someone else. Do not cause pain to others in any form. Be like the lotus, unattached to the slush where it is born in and the water in which it is bred. The merits and demerits earned in past births is the slush, where the individual is born; the enticing illusion called world is the water that sustains. Do not allow that enticement to affect you. Be above and beyond earthly attachments like the lotus. Though you may be in it, you should not allow the world to get into you and affect your sense of values.

2.‘Holy days’ have now become ‘holidays’ when you make merry, eat your fill, go out on picnics and hikes, and generally indulge in sensual pleasures. These typically end in dejection, disease and discord. Sacred places have a subtle and powerful influence on human beings. Attach yourself to the Highest, call it by any name and conceive it in any form. But remember, without dharma (righteousness) you cannot attain it. If you yield to alpabuddhi (inferior thoughts), you will be losing the akhanda-thathwa (principle of the Universal). Don't be led away into the bylanes; keep to the highway.

3.A small seed grows slowly into a huge spreading tree. So too, through little acts, soft words and kind deeds, you can elevate yourself into a Divine Being. The worst action is to do the opposite of what you preach – to deny by the hand what you dole out of your mouth. If you cannot act up to your declarations, be quiet. Do not go about advising others on virtues and advertising yourself as a hypocrite. Do not preach dharma (righteousness) while decrying it in deed. Dharma (Righteousness) is steady, unchanging and never declining; those who do not adhere to it do not decline dharma but themselves. One is judged by practise not by the precepts one pours forth. 

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba 

Thought for the Day

True knowledge is that which takes you across this sea of flux, of births and deaths. Knowledge is of two kinds - the first is Objective Knowledge or that of the world; the second is Integral Knowledge, that is, the understanding that the Divine Self and the individual soul are one. Integral Knowledge destroys the delusion of considering this constant flux as reality; it removes fear from the heart and reveals to one that every being is truly Divine. There are two paths by which one can approach this Knowledge - the inner and the outer. The outer path is that of selfless actions and the inner path is deep meditation and equanimity.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

To remove darkness,light is needed

The source of all types of sorrow is ignorance (ajnana). The source of ignorance is identification with the body - the delusion that you are the body. This can be removed only by the acquisition of right knowledge. To remove darkness, light is needed; darkness cannot be frightened away, nor can you make it yield by prayer or petition or protest. It will not disappear unless light comes in. When ignorance goes, grief too vanishes. That is why, in the Geeta, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Attach yourself to Me and earn the light of True Knowledge and tread the path of ‘No grief’.”

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

The God of Death, Yama is also called Kaala, which means time. Time is the true God of Death. Time knows no mercy; you have to leave when the time is over. Each day, your span is shortened by twenty four hours. The God of Death is said to carry a rope. He does not run a rope factory to drag into his home all the millions who die. The dying person has the rope already spun and twisted round the neck. Each one spins this rope through every act performed during the years of one’s life, now or in the past. Acts done with egoism, self-interest or an eye on the beneficial consequences make the rope longer and gives it a stronger twist. Good deeds done in a dedicatory spirit do not add to the length or the strength of the rope. They give peace and happiness in plenty. Resolve from this day to see only the good in others and to develop the good in y ourselves. This is the best sadhana (spiritual practice).

Bagaan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

The devotion of the Jnani (the Wise) is direct devotion (Bhakthi) to the Lord, for the Wise cognises the Lord as their own Self (Atma); this state is reached as a result of the merit accumulated through many lives. This devotion is not a stage attainable on the spur of the moment; nor is it available ready-made in shops for a price. It is the culmination of the spiritual endeavour of many lives. So too, if someone has become a Jnani today, you can imagine the years of Sadhana (spiritual efforts) that won for the person that state. The goal is reached stage by stage. Therefore seekers and devotees must be ever vigilant, and keep away from all undesirable traits; they should try to grow in the contemplation of the glory of God and in the practice of morality, eagerly striving to experience the real bliss of attainment. This bliss has then to be shared with the world. That will inaugurate world peace and world prosperity.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

If we practise our ancient values, society will attain welfare

1.Right from a young age, children should be taught the greatness of our ancient culture. They should develop humility, love, and reverence toward elders and respect everyone. Children and youth should be moulded into ideal citizens. One can earn the respect of others only when one first respects others. Respect does not mean merely greeting by saying 'hello'. One should offer their respects (namaskara) to the others with humility and reverence. Na-maskara means offering your respects without a trace of ego and attachment (ahamkara and mamakara). For anything, practise is very important. The responsibility lies with the parents and teachers to make the children and youth adhere to our ancient tradition. Then society will certainly progress and enjoy peace and prosperity. If we practise our ancient values, society will attain kshemam (welfare), otherwise it will be afflicted with kshamam (famine). Practising one’s sacred culture is the true sign of education.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

1.The spiritual aspirants in the midst of their efforts sometimes imagine God to be less glorious than He really is! They feel that the Lord differentiates between sinners and saints or the ignorant and the wise; these are unsound inferences. The Lord does not separate men thus. If He really did so, no sinner can survive His anger on earth for even a minute. This truth is known only to the wise. Ordinary people are unaware of this and suffer under the false belief that the Lord is somewhere far away from them. It is the nature of fire to warm you when you shiver from cold. But how can it help you keep warm if you keep away at a distance! Similarly those who are earnest to remove the chills of worldly ills have to seek the fire of wisdom (Jnana), which is won by the grace of God. And that is how a wise man (Jnani) is declared as dear to the lord.

2.The Gita describes four types of devotees - Jnani (one who has conquered delusion and attained wisdom), Jijnasu (the devotee who is a seeker of wisdom), Aartha and Arth-arthi (those who turn to the Lord to relieve some or the other form of suffering). This classification can be understood by an example: Jnana (wisdom) is like the ‘through train’, the passenger need not detrain and board another train to reach the destination. The Jijnasu is a passenger who has entered the ‘through carriage’ who also does not have to detrain and board another train; but the carriage will be detained and attached to other trains en route. The Aarthas and Arth-arthis board the ordinary train, and will have to alight at a number of places en route and wait until another train co mes by; they reach the goal by stages. It is a long and arduous journey. But still it can be accomplished if the devotee persists. Thus the goal is attained by all; only the process and the pace are different. All seek the same high goal. Do not limit your desires to the little. Those who yearn for the Lord are generous and large-hearted.

3.Mere external cleanliness is not enough, you must cleanse your mind and develop inner purity. Remember, the all-pervasive God is present within everyone. You must aspire and work for the happiness of others. True celebration lies, in each sharing the happiness of the other. Give happiness to others. Only then you have the right to receive it from others. Always practice “Give and Take”. Strive for the welfare of everyone, not just you and your family.

Thought for the Day

Everybody aspires for happiness. Where is happiness? Without working hard, you cannot get happiness. During ancient times, people would offer their salutations to action (karma) before undertaking it; they chanted thasmai namah karmane (salutations to action). In India, some people follow this sacred tradition even today. A dancer salutes the anklets before tying them to the feet. Even an uneducated driver offers his obeisance to the steering wheel before driving the vehicle and some cricketers too, pay their respects to the ball before starting to bowl. First and foremost, offer respects and express gratitude to karma before undertaking it. Make it a practice every day. It will then give good results. Understand your duty and perform it to the best of your abilities. Then, you will earn the deservedness to experience happiness.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

The very first thing you must do, to impress upon your mind the reality, is to recite the Name of God and dwell on His Glory in the mind. This will ensure the tongue will not stray into lesser topics and the mind will not drag you into inferior matters. Remember, the journey of everyone is towards the cemetery. Every day brings you nearer to your final moment. So do not delay the duty that you must carry out for your own lasting good. Revere man; that is the first step towards reverence for God, for man is prathyaksha (perceptible) while God is paroksha (imperceptible). Endeavor to see the Lord that resides in the heart of every living being. This will certainly lead you to eternity and save you from births and deaths.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

1.Your duties have to be done, there is no turning away. Each have their allotted tasks, according to the status, taste, tendency and earned merit. Do it with fear of God and sin, deep in your heart. Welcome pain and grief so that you take both success and failure as hammer strokes that shape you into a sturdy aspirant. Inner content is more important than outer prosperity. Dharma is the moral code, the experience of sages, the controlling discipline which checks the mind and senses. The codes of Dharma act as brakes that control and direct human life. They help you progress, each in its own way. March straight on the path of action (Karma) and virtue (Dharma) towards God. This is your destiny.

2.The inner prompting to conquer illusion (maya), by surrendering to the Lord, comes as a result of merits accumulated from many births. Those with demerits as their earnings will pursue the fleeting pleasure of the senses. Like birds and beasts, they revel in food and frolic as the purpose of life, and do not entertain any thoughts of God. They dislike the company of the virtuous and the good, and stray away from good acts and become outlaws in the realm of God. On the other hand, those who have earned merit strive to grow in virtue, cultivate uplifting thoughts, and contemplate and yearn for the Divine. Such seekers may be drawn to the Lord through suffering or want or the thirst for knowledge or keenness to acquire wisdom. But the fact that they turn towards the Lord for relief shows that they have grown into the higher path through many births.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

Waves originate in the upper layers of the sea. They are caused by the wind, so the wind can be said to have that power. So too, the mind of the intelligent person is full of thoughts and opinions. When the proper atmosphere is present, these spring up and roll in from all directions. In the same manner, the Lord is manifest in the picture or image that one worships, but is this due to any special excellence of the picture or image? No. The picture or the image remain as they are. The fact is that on account of the intensity of the devotion of the devotee, the Lord cannot desist from manifesting Himself for them. For that reason, He assumes - in stone, wood, or paper - the form that the devotee contemplates and meditates upon and worships. In order to fulfill the yearning of the devotee, the Immanent Basic Being of the Universe, will come in any Form, in anything, at any place.

Thought for the Day

1.As the heart is to the body, so is the place of worship (Temple, Mosque, Church, etc.) to the community. Worship of God through various festivals, construction of places of worship, etc. are all good deeds (Sath Karma). They provide training in service and create opportunities for sacrifice and detachment. However be aware that when there is the anguished cry for food and shelter, money should not be spent on construction of new places of worship; this is not to be encouraged. The same Lord is worshipped everywhere, and you need not build a temple for every new Name or Form. Tell people to see in all Forms and under all Names the same God. That is the training they need.

2.When Krishna said, “Remove the defect in vision, then the author of this Universe can be cognised,” Arjuna sought the cause for this faulty vision. Krishna explained, “Between Me and this universe, there moves maya (delusion). It is indeed a hard task for one to see beyond maya, for maya too is Mine. It is of the same substance; it is My creation and under My control. It will turn in a trice, even the mightiest among men, head over heels! Do not take maya to mean some ugly thing that has descended from somewhere else; it is an attribute of the mind which makes you ignore the true and the eternal Paramatma (Supreme Self) and instead value the manifold multiplicity of Name and Form. It causes the error of believing the body to be the Self, instead of the embodied (the Deha instead of the Dehi). To overcome maya is surely the most difficult task. Only those who are wholeheartedly attached to Me can conquer My maya.”

3Individual reconstruction is the most important need today. Multiply virtues, not buildings. Practise what you preach, that is the real pilgrimage. Cleanse your minds of envy and malice; this is the real bath in holy waters. Of what avail is the Name of the Lord on the tongue, if the heart within is impure? Injustice and discontent are spreading everywhere, due to this one single fault in humans – saying one thing and doing the opposite. You must set yourself right and correct your food, recreation and method of spending your leisure and your thoughts and habits. Remove the vices of lust and hatred, and put out the raging flames of anger and greed. Then, the innate tranquillity and happiness (shantham and soukhyam) within you, will manifest unhindered. You are the embodiment of peace; happiness is your very nature.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

The universe is based on God but He has no need for the universe as base. The pot depends on the clay but the clay is not dependent on the pot. The clay is Brahman (Divinity) and the pot is Prakruti (Creation). Ignore the shape, the form and the name - the pot is just clay. It is truer to say that all is Brahman than to say, ‘Brahman is in everything’. It is nobler to visualize the Divine as the basis of all (Sarva-aadhaara), rather than to conceive It as Inner Reality of all beings. (Sarvabhutha- antharaatm). Without Divinity there can be no Creation; this is the truth.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba