Life 48 (Feb 25 - Dec 26)

[winston]

What should we do to draw Him towards ourselves and secure His grace?

Many people who have some questions regarding Him, do not realise the ways of the Divine.

They look at all things from the worldly point of view. They should look at things from the Divine point of view.

Change the angle of your vision. When you practise seeing the world from the point of view of the omnipresence of the Divine, you will get transformed.

You will experience the power of the Divine in everything in creation. You cannot hide anything from Him.

Many imagine that He does not see what they are doing. They do not realise that He has a myriad eyes.

Even your eyes are divine. But you are not aware of your true nature.

When you have faith in yourself, you will have faith in Him. Realise that there is nothing beyond the power of His.

Love Him with that supreme faith. Then you will be drawn towards Him.

It needs purity. A magnet cannot attract a piece of iron covered with rust. Similarly, He will not draw to Himself an impure person.

Hence, change your feelings and thoughts and develop the conviction that He is everything. He will not give you up when you have this conviction.

- Divine Discourse, Feb 27, 1995

Consider all work as His work and develop love. When love grows, faith will also grow more.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the solution for the ills the world is afflicted with?

Three things are most essential today.

Morality in business, politics with principles and education with character.

Wherever you turn, there is disorder, misery, and fear. How are these diseases to be got rid of?

Love is the only means. Love is Divine. Live in love.

When love is developed, hatred will have no place. Injustice will be out of bounds.

People will not indulge in falsehood. They will not resort to wicked ways. People will follow the right path. Therefore, deem love as Divine.

“Ahimsa (non-violence) is the foremost virtue.”

“Love alone is the form of the Divine.”

Love all. Love is His only property. It does not belong to man. It is not a purchasable commodity. It issues from the heart. It alone can be said to be Divine.

Divine love is different from human attachments. It is timeless. It is omnipresent. Make it your sole ideal. It is inherent in you. Manifest it in the proper way.

- Divine Discourse, Mar 07, 1997

When you see the world with the spectacles of love, the entire world will appear to be full of love.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Is it enough if we claim that we have devotion for the Divine or is there something more we must strive for?

You must learn to explore how you can deserve His grace and distinguish good from bad.

I am hoping that you will have all these capacities and earn His grace. It is not enough if you have devotion.

Your prema (love) is not necessarily going to result in His prema on you. Unless you find ways and means by which you can earn His grace, your effort is useless.

You should follow a path by which you will be able to experience and enjoy prema.

To know the path by which you will receive, prema is more important than simply saying that you have prema.

Your prema alone is simply like one-way traffic. If your prema results in your receiving prema from the other side, then it becomes two-way traffic.

It is give and take. If you have good ideas, develop good thoughts and adopt good practices, then you do not have to ask for His grace.

The Divine Himself will shower His grace and prema, as a reward for your good conduct.

- Summer Showers, Jun 17, 1974

If one does not pay heed to the His words and does not act up to His injunctions, to claim that one is a devotee is only a pompous boast.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why does the Divine come to us from His high abode and how can we make the best of it?

The blemish that affects the mind is illusion. It is like a fierce dog that will not allow anyone to approach the Master.

You can manage to bypass it only by assuming the form of the Master or by calling out for the Master so loudly, that He comes down and accompanies you into the house, that is to say, by winning His Grace, (proximity).

Illusion is His pet and so, it will not harm you if He orders it to desist from harming you.

The Master comes to save not one good man from illusion but the whole of mankind. Of course, He has to come assuming a form that man can love, revere and appreciate.

He can give joy and courage, only if He speaks the language of human conversation.

Many are afraid to approach the Divine, for they know He's aware of their innermost thoughts and deepest desires. But only helpless animals have fear. Man, who is the child of immortality, should have no fear.

People pray before stone images of the snake god but when the actual snake appears in answer to their prayers, they run away, terror-stricken from the shrine!

The Divine manifests Himself only to shower Grace, never to strike terror.

- Divine Discourse, Jan 01, 1964

The one who considers that the Divine is far off, He is really distant from him. The one who considers that He is near, for him He is near.

Source: radiosai.org

[behappyalways]

Taiwan woman, 80, smothers polio-stricken son, 53, afraid he would be left alone after she dies
https://mothership.sg/2025/11/taiwan-woman-polio-son/

[winston]

Why is love for the Divine, the only worthwhile investment we need to make in life?

Through love, you can achieve anything.

A man without love is as good as dead. Serve all with love.

The Divine is both the lover and the beloved. He is the director of the play and He is also the actor.

"He will bring tears to your eyes; He will wipe away your tears." How does He do it?

When you are immersed in worldly affairs, He brings tears to your eyes. When you are immersed in spirituality, He wipes away your grief.

"He will drive you crazy. He will drive away your madness; He makes the devotee crazy and makes him cry;

He rescues the devotee from the crazy attachment to the world.

A pleasure seeker is transformed into a spiritual seeker and a spiritual seeker is turned into the enjoyer of bliss.

When a man of affluence becomes a mendicant, he will start the contemplation on the Divine.

- Divine Discourse, Mar 07, 1997

Surrender to Him. His grace can save you, His wisdom can enlighten you and His power, can overcome all your obstacles.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the one mistake we all must be wary of?

Do not go about proclaiming that you are a sect distinct and separate from those who adore the Divine, in other forms and names. Thereby, you are limiting the very Divine whom you are extolling.

Do not proclaim in your enthusiasm: “We want only Him; we are not concerned with the rest.”

You must convince yourselves that all forms are Divine; all names are His.

There is no ‘rest’; all are He. You must have noticed that I do not speak about a certain Him in My discourses, nor do I sing of a certain Him during the bhajan with which I usually conclude My discourses. And you must have wondered why.

Let me tell you the reason. I do not want the impression to gain ground that I desire this Name and this Form to be publicised.

I have not come to set afoot a new cult; I do not want people to be misled on this point. I affirm that this form is the form of all the various names that man uses for the adoration of the Divine.

So, I am teaching that no distinction should be made between the names for they are all His names.

- Divine Discourse, May 17, 1968

The Divine is the embodiment of Love and you should not do anything which is contrary to the love that He represents.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the precious offering, the Divine seeks from us?

It is a custom that when you approach Him, you take something with you; this is an act which people do, when they go for the fulfilment of some desire, or the grant of Grace for realising some wish.

They take patram, pushpam, phalam, toyam (leaf, flower, fruit, water), as the Scripture says.

The attitude is "I am jiva (individual); He is Deva (Divine)". But, this is as bad a trick as some men do: bring one cow when we ask them for milk, and milk another to give us the milk.

They give the Divine, the leaf, flower and fruit grown on some tree and then the reward of Grace, goes to the tree, not to them!

Give the leaf, flower, fruit that has grown on the tree of your life; the fragrant leaves of your mental resolves and plans, the sweet, juicy fruits of your own activities and thoughts.

He knows the relative value of these two; He requires something that is your very own, not something bought in the bazar or grown on some tree or produced by someone's intelligence or devotion and steadiness.

He has given you ‘the heart’ to use in life; return it to Him as clean and as pure as when He gave it, after using it for storing love, peace, righteousness and truth, and for distributing them to all who come in contact with you.

- Divine Discourse, Oct 03, 1965

You should offer Him what is your own. You have right only on your heart. Offer it to Him and offer it with love.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why should students focus on goodness rather than on greatness?

Acquire big degrees, achieve fame. No harm. Go abroad, earn money and reputation; nothing wrong in that. But never forget your own culture. Don’t criticise others' culture.

Wherever you are, make your life an ideal for others. Speak pleasantly. Do good deeds. Then you will be a good person.

Do not strive to acquire the status of a great man. Always strive to become a good man.

Great men may do many evil deeds but the acts of a good man, always stand out as ideals for others.

Even one evil trait is enough to cause ruin! Then imagine the fate of one who has all six evil qualities of lust, anger, greed, pride, envy and hatred?

- Divine Discourse, Nov 22, 1999

Physical knowledge is negative, while spiritual knowledge is positive. Humanness blossoms when the positive is blended with the negative.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Your good fortune and the expectations from you

In truth, this Kali era is the most beneficent of the four, for you have now amidst you, the eternal embodiment of Ananda (bliss) in a form which you can approach, adore and learn from.

You are singing with the Divine, conversing and filling your eyes, ears and hearts, with His utterances and activities.

The Eternal, with neither entrance nor exit; The One who neither Was nor Is nor Will be;

The Immortal Person free from birth and death. Feel with the mind, plan with the intelligence and use the body to serve those who are in need of service.

Offer that act of service to Him; worship Him with that flower.

Put into daily practice the ideals that He has been propagating and make them known all over the world by standing forth as living examples of their greatness.

- Divine Discourse, Nov 23, 1979

The day on which the principle of love is established in the heart, that day is His Birthday.

Source: radiosai.org