Vedanta proclaimed that love for God is itself moksha. The heart of a believer filled with love for God becomes tender and gentle. Sooner or later, every person will surely make their heart such a sacred abode of love for the Lord. A believer whose heart has become the Lord’s dwelling no longer desires liberation. The very act of surrendering to God will make them one with the Lord.
How can we tame the most powerful instrument we possess—our mind? Bhagavan lovingly explains this to us today.
The mind, as Arjuna lamented, leaps from faith to disbelief, from one conclusion to its negation, leading to disorder and confusion. But there is a method by which it can be subdued. A black bee can bore a hole in the hardest wood. But when it drinks nectar from a lotus flower at dusk, the closing petals imprison the bee with no hope of escape. It does not know how to deal with the softness of the lotus! Likewise, the mind may perform its tricks and recklessly leap about in any arena; but when it is placed at the lotus feet of the Lord, it becomes inert and harmless. To surrender the mind completely to the Lord, deep detachment from worldly desires is required. Superficial devotion and wavering determination will not bring success. To cut down a hard sandalwood tree, a heavy steel axe is needed.
—Divine Discourse, December 24, 1980.
Separate the mind from the transient and establish it in the Eternal.
Jesus came to proclaim the greatness of divine love to humanity. When Jesus was ten years old, His father died. From that time onward, with His Mother’s blessing, He devoted Himself to serving humanity. He took a threefold vow:
To be filled with divine love and share it with all people, considering this the main purpose of life;
To remain indifferent to praise and blame while carrying out His mission;
To instill in people the faith that the Divinity dwelling within them is omnipresent.
Jesus regarded spreading the Gospel of love as His foremost task. He had to undergo many trials, but He met them as challenges in life to be accepted and overcome. He calmly accepted fortune and joy, pain, persecution, and suffering. The only thing He could not bear was witnessing the suffering of others. He sternly condemned the merchants who desecrated the sanctuary of the temple in Jerusalem, and many of them turned against Him. But despite their hostility, He remained steadfast. His love for people was so great that He sacrificed His life for their salvation.
*What is the key to victory on this journey of life? How can we achieve it? Bhagawan lovingly guides us today.*
The Kauravas had every tool for victory—wealth, the power of weapons, allies, fanatical hatred of the enemy, and unrestrained passion! But they all turned to dust because they never paid attention to the higher values of Righteousness (Dharma); they did not endow themselves with God's Grace, which is meant for those who follow the path of humility and peace. Krishna was not their charioteer; they believed in lesser things.
When rulers develop plans to uplift the people and educate the country's children, I want them to consult the ancient wisdom of this country, still preserved and practiced by Vedic scholars (pandits). This will keep the ship's keel straight. I want the knowledge embodied in the Upanishads to be passed on to everyone.
Education directed toward bhakti, or devotion, should take priority over education directed toward bhukti, or enjoyment, which prevails today in most countries of the world. Bhakti is asakti, or aspiration, that impels you toward spiritual discipline, which will endow you with spiritual wisdom (Jnana). Have faith and perseverance, and you will triumph.
— Divine Discourse, April 13, 1964.
Sathya Sai Baba
Desire gives rise to aspirations
Aspirations lead to birth, and also to death. When a person is free from desire, there is no need for them to pass through birth and death. The next birth is the result of unfulfilled desires from this life, and is predetermined by them. Those who have traced and established the source of desire for material objects can attain an understanding of the Atmic reality.
In fact, the desire to know God, love God, and be loved by God is not the kind of desire that binds. When the understanding of God blossoms in all its splendor, every worldly, sensual desire will turn to ashes in the flame of this Understanding. When desire comes to an end, the individual entity will turn toward the Universal Entity and find bliss in supreme Peace, Paramashanti. For your “I” to attain immortality, it must sever all contact with the “not-I.”
Your thoughts play a vital role in shaping your life. That is why you are advised to watch your thoughts and welcome only good ones.
Sai Baba
How should we pray? What should we do so that our prayers reach God? Bhagavan lovingly guides us today!
Christmas is a religious service held on the day of Christ’s birth. In essence, it is a sacred religious rite. It is very wrong to treat it as a celebration with drinking and dancing, or even merely as a festival commemorating Jesus. This day should be spent in prayer—and not just this day; we should cultivate the spiritual discipline of prayer (sadhana) as a normal way of life. Prayers directed toward worldly goals do not reach God. They reach only those deities who deal with such limited spheres. But all prayers that flow from pure love, all-embracing hearts, and a selfless desire to serve others will reach God. For God is Love Itself. We know that the Moon can be seen only through moonlight. Likewise, God, who is Love, can be seen, understood, and realized only through Love. Love is God; live in Love. This is the Message I give you.
— Divine Discourse, December 24, 1980.
Today the world needs the redeeming and unifying power of love—love that continually expands and embraces more and more people.
Purity of mind is necessary to experience divine bliss, just as purity of body is necessary for physical health. Higher than any knowledge acquired in the world is knowledge of the Self (Atma Jnana). There is no happiness greater than Self-realization. It can be attained only by destroying the ego and surrendering oneself to God. Prayers should not be uttered only with the lips; they should come from the heart.
Today, a person practices meditation and performs japa (counts prayer beads), yet at the same time allows animal qualities to grow within him. As long as these qualities remain, observing religious rituals is useless. All such spiritual practices amount to an attempt to deceive God Himself. Therefore, true sadhana (spiritual practice) means getting rid of all animal qualities, such as cruelty, malice, and so on. Two qualities make a person estranged from God—asūya and ahamkara. Envy and egoism are two worms that destroy the tree of life. They rob a person of his human essence. With these bad qualities, people turn away from good company.
The world is a continuous spectacle in which people with different views of life participate. There are people who always appear calm, and people who are always full of sorrow. There are people who express both joy and sorrow, but there are also those who, having surrendered themselves to divine love, constantly dwell in bliss. What is the reason for such different states of human beings? The reason lies in the mind.
In a human being there are a demon, an animal, a human, and the Divine—and this is the reason, but the main source of these states is the mind.
Only in a human being do “Human-Divine,” “Human-human,” “Human-demon,” and “Human-animal” unite.
All these states are deeply rooted in the human mind.
It is said: brahmanishtha paro devah (one who dwells in Brahman—the Supreme Divine).
Having once established themselves in divine consciousness, performing actions and fulfilling duties that bring joy to God, Godly people see the Divine everywhere. For such a person, all forms and beings appear as reflections of the divine principle, and they spend their life in joy, enchanted by God.
Sathya Sai Baba
Summer Showers in Brindavan 1993, Ch. 7
Desire gives rise to aspirations
Aspirations lead to birth, and also to death. When a person is free from desire, they have no need to pass through birth and death. The next birth is the result of unfulfilled desires from this life, and is predetermined by them. Those who have traced and identified the source of desire for material objects can attain an understanding of the Atmic reality.
In fact, the desire to know God, love God, and be loved by God is not the kind of desire that binds. When understanding of God blossoms in all its glory, every worldly and sensual desire will turn to ashes in the flame of this Understanding. When desire comes to an end, the individual being will turn toward the Universal Being and find delight in the highest Peace, Paramashanti. For your “I” to attain immortality, it must sever all contact with the “non-I.”
Your thoughts play a vital role in shaping your life. That is why you are advised to watch your thoughts and welcome only good ones.
Sathya Sai Baba
How can we get rid of doubts and live in bliss every moment of our lives? Bhagavan lovingly reminds us of this today.
In fact, there are no atheists at all; there are only ignorant people. They do not know that God is their inner essence. They deny God because they do not know that their very breath is God. It is like a fish denying the existence of water. You should pity them for their immense ignorance rather than get angry with them for saying things you do not like. God dwells within you as ananda (divine bliss); that is why you instinctively seek ananda always and in everything around you. To become as full of ananda as Radha (Lord Krishna’s consort), or as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, or as Vivekananda, you must sacrifice your ego and fill yourself with the awareness that the Lord is your very being. — Divine Discourse, August 13, 1964.
Theists and atheists are actually one. Atheists are like flower buds, while theists are like flowers in bloom.
What is the nature of the mind, and what is the secret to making it work for us? Today, Bhagavan clearly and lovingly reminds us of this.
The mind is a marvel, and its antics are even more astonishing. It has no distinct form or outline. It assumes the form or outline of whatever it becomes involved in. Wandering from desire to desire, leaping from one aspiration to another—such is its nature. Therefore, it is the cause of loss and sorrow, elation and depression. Its influence can be either positive or negative. One should understand the nature of the mind and how to master it for the attainment of the highest good. The mind tends to accumulate experiences and store them in memory. It does not know how to renounce anything. Nothing is discarded by the mind. As a result, grief, anxiety, and suffering continue to be “digested” within it. By teaching the mind tyaga (renunciation), you can become a yogi (a spiritually serene person).
Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Divine Discourse, January 8, 1983.
Assign your mind the task of serving the Lord, and it will become शांत.
BABA
People acquire an enormous amount of knowledge about a wide variety of things, but despite all their learning, they have no true understanding of their own reality. And the more deeply a person delves into books, the more they doubt and argue.
But no matter how educated a person may be, if they are filled with malice, no amount of learning or erudition can change their malicious nature. What is the point of struggling so hard for this learning and obtaining an education that has no real value? Only that which leads a person to immortality can be considered true education. It is the teaching of the ideals of truth, duty, and righteousness.
Sathya Sai Baba, Summer Showers in Brindavan, 1990
Silence is the only language of the enlightened. Be moderate in speech. This will help you in many ways; it will develop your love, for most misunderstandings and conflicts arise from a thoughtless word. If you stumble with your foot, the wound can be treated, but if your tongue stumbles, the wound inflicted on your fellow human being will fester and bleed in their heart throughout their life. The tongue is responsible for four major mistakes: telling lies, causing scandal, finding fault with others, and excessive talkativeness. For shanti to become the possession of both the individual and society, all these mistakes should be avoided.
There are four types of people: the “dead”—those who deny the Lord and believe that they exist by themselves, independent, free, self-governing, and self-directed; the “sick”—those who turn to the Lord only when some misfortune befalls them or when they feel that the sources that usually support them have temporarily dried up; the “foolish”—those who know that God is an eternal companion and witness, but remember this only from time to time, when the idea is strong and carries a powerful charge of energy; and, finally, the “healthy”—those whose faith in the Lord is unchanging and who always live in His Peaceful and Creative Presence.
You move from “death” to “life” and from “illness” to “health” by experiencing the blows inflicted by this world. The world is a very important part of a person’s curriculum; through the torments of seeking, the infant of wisdom is born.
The value of suffering is that it is a sign of the birth of new life. From unrest (Ashanti), you come to complete peace (Prashanti), from complete peace to spiritual illumination (Prakanti), and from spiritual illumination to the Eternal Divine Light (Paramjyoti).
The alternation of joy and sorrow is like the alternation of day and night. Night and day are twin sisters, and both are necessaryfor the fertility of the soil, for the increase of activity and the renewal of Life. They are like summer and winter. There are those who ask: "Baba! Make this summer less hot!" But it is during the summer heat that the earth absorbs the solar energy it needs so that, when the rains come, it can produce an abundant harvest.
God leads a person to Himself. Such is the nature of both of them—to be mutually attracted, for they are one and the same. It is like iron and a magnet. But if the iron is heavily rusted and covered with layers of dirt, the magnet will not be able to attract it. Removing the obstacle is all you have to do. Shine with the light of your true nature, and God will accept you into His heart. Trials and misfortunes are the means through which purification takes place.
One who has mastered the mind will always remain unchanged, both in good times and in adverse ones.
Joy and sorrow are merely delusions of the mind.
Only when the mind comes into close contact with the senses and the body does it become changeable, agitated, and susceptible to influence. When a person takes intoxicating substances and becomes intoxicated, they stop feeling pain, do they not?
How does this happen? The mind separates from the body, and therefore physical pain and discomfort are not felt.
Likewise, the knower (jnani) immerses their mind in the Atma; they can attain peace of mind through practice.
The jnani receives complete bliss from their Atma; they do not seek it anywhere outside themselves.
In fact, they have no desire to seek joy in anything external.
They are content with the inner joy they receive.
The greatness of the knower, the jnani, is beyond all description—even beyond anything you can imagine!
I want you to forget many things.
Forget everything that drives you crazy.
Forget worry and agitation: you know that I control everything.
But there is one thing I beg you to do, something you
must never forget.
Please do not forget to tell Me: “I LOVE YOU!” OFTEN!
I want to hear your voice.
I want you to include Me in your life.
I want to hear what you say about your friends and family.
Prayer is simply a conversation with Me.
I want to be your closest Friend.
The Manu Dharma Shastra says that satsangam has three facets: “bhadram pashyantu,” “bhadram shrunvantu,” “bhadram kurvantu” (look only at what is good, listen only to what is good, and do only what is good). Unfortunately, these qualities are absent in a person once they reach adulthood. At this stage, they may appear devoted, but their devotion is fickle and insincere. Spirituality is regarded more as a formal ritual than as an inner state.
What is spirituality really? Does spirituality consist of bhajans? Or repeating the words “Sai Ram,” or making pilgrimages to holy places? No, all these are signs of human weakness. True spirituality consists in eliminating animal instincts and manifesting the Divine light within a person. This is the true meaning of spirituality.
S. – Baba, why does God always incarnate as a man?
SAI: – Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Consciousness, is Formless (beyond form). It is neither man nor woman, neither masculine nor feminine. But when this Consciousness is divided, it manifests in two aspects—Knowledge and Energy, Shiva and Shakti. Shiva is the masculine or negative aspect, while Shakti is the feminine or positive aspect. Shiva and Shakti are omnipresent, as Purusha and Prakriti, respectively. Purusha represents natural, primordial consciousness, while Prakriti is all of creation as a whole, including humanity. As I have already said, Shiva, or Purusha, is the masculine aspect, while Shakti, or Prakriti, is the feminine. God alone is the only Purusha, or male, in creation. Everything else in creation is feminine. That is why God always assumes a masculine form when He incarnates on Earth.
S. – Why have all the incarnations of the Lord taken place in India?
SAI: – Because India is the land of the Vedas and Hinduism. The Vedas are the Voice of God, and Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world. All other religions emerged from Hinduism. Thus, India is the birthplace of all religions. All the major religions of the world are represented in India. That is why God always incarnates here: to demonstrate the unity of all religions and faiths and to establish the universal brotherhood of humanity under the Fatherhood of the Lord.
S. – In one of Your talks, You stated that Shiva and Shakti promised the sage Bharadwaja that They would incarnate three times in his lineage: – Shiva as Shirdi Sai, Shiva and Shakti as Sathya Sai, and Shakti as Prema Sai. What is the reason for this division, Baba?
SAI: – Manifestation, expression, is the work of Shakti. Shirdi Sai was a Brahma Jnani. He was an Incarnation of Universal Consciousness (Jnanasvarupa). He was also a Sadguru, teaching all His devotees about Reality and leading them along the path of Truth.
S. – Then was He not a Purna Avatar?
(A Purna Avatar, a complete incarnation, is said to possess 16 attributes (kalas). The five principal signs are: 1) Srishti, or the power and capacity of Creation; 2) Sthiti, or the power of Preservation; 3) Laya, or the power of Dissolution; 4) Tilodayak, or the power to Incarnate; 5) Anugraha, or the power to bestow Grace. Each of these five attributes is present in all three periods of Time (past, present, and future), thus making a total of 15 attributes (5×3). The sixteenth attribute is Chit, meaning Supreme Consciousness or Supreme Knowledge, and It exists at all times. It is said that among all Avatars, only Sri Krishna and Sri Sai are Purna Avatars possessing all sixteen attributes. Even Sri Rama possessed only 12 attributes. The remaining four were divided between Sri Parashurama and Rama’s three brothers – Lakshmana, Shatrughna, and Bharata – each of whom possessed one Avatar attribute.)
SAI: – Oh, yes. He was a Purna Avatar and possessed all the attributes of a Purna Avatar. But He did not display His Shakti, or Power, abundantly. He possessed all the attributes of Divine Shakti, but He kept them under control and did not reveal them fully. He was like a scholarly musician who demonstrated his artistry only occasionally; He was like a talented poet who recited his verses aloud extremely rarely; He was like a skilled sculptor who displayed his works only from time to time.
