Life 48 (Feb 25 - Dec 26)

[winston]

As time moves relentlessly, how must we lead life to ensure we sanctify the time given to us?

Love, adore, serve the Divine who is resident in all mankind; through that Love, adoration and service, realise Him. That is the highest sadhana (spiritual practice).

Serve man as Divine. Give food to the hungry, food that is the gift of Goddess Nature; give it with love and humility.

Give it, sweetened with the name of the Divine.

Celestial spheres are revolving and disintegrating; time is fleeting; age follows age; era succeeds era; bodies that have taken birth, grow and end;

But the urge to sanctify life with good works and good thoughts, is nowhere evident; the fragrance of sincere sadhana is not traceable anywhere.

Through the process of 'giving up’, great things can be achieved.

Cultivate detachment and He will attach Himself to you.

The past is beyond recovery; those days are gone. But tomorrow is coming towards you.

Resolve to sanctify it with Love, Service and Sadhana.

- Divine Discourse, Mar 29, 1968.

Man has been endowed with a body for performing actions. Right action renders Time itself holy.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the truth we must remember and let guide our journey of life?

That Thou Art. Be firm in that faith.

Ponder on a river merging in the ocean. The waters of the ocean rise up as vapour when warmed by the Sun and form clouds, which drop down as drops of rain.

Each drop has inside it the yearning to return to the ocean from which it has been exiled. But, the feeling of individuality overcomes the yearning.

The raindrops accumulate and flow as brooks and streams which swell into tributaries of rivers, flooding the plains.

At last, the river merges into the ocean and loses its name, form and attributes. In spite of all the modifications undergone in the journey from ocean to ocean, water remains as water in vapour, cloud, rain and river.

Names and forms and qualities do change but the core remains unchanged.

Man too emerges from the ocean of Divinity and his destiny is to merge in it. This is the Truth. This is the Reality.

- Divine Discourse, Jan 02, 1987.

For individuals who have liberated themselves from the narrowness of individuality, the only task is the uplift of humanity, the welfare of the world and the showering of love.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What should we do to prepare ourselves for Atma Vidya or knowledge about the Self?

It is a hard job to know about your own Self. Take the case of the food that you eat with your own mouth. You feel it in your stomach and after that, you do not experience what happens to it at each stage.

How then can you know, without acquiring the special knowledge about it, the Truth that lies behind the sheaths that encase and enclose you - the Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya - (sheaths of material, vital energy, mind, intelligence and bliss)?

Clear your intellect or intellectual power (dheeshakti) of the cobwebs of ego, the dust of desire, the soot of greed and envy, and it becomes a fit instrument for revealing the Swarupa - the Inner Truth.

"Know yourself, know the Inner Motivator, the Antaryamin" - that is the exhortation of the scriptures of all faiths.

For, unless you are armed with spiritual knowledge, you are like a ship without a compass, sailing on a stormy sea!

- Divine Discourse, Apr 16, 1964.

Just as the army becomes dispirited and surrenders when the commander falls, so the army of evil qualities will surrender its arms as soon as egotism (ahamkara) is destroyed.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What are the everyday experiences that indicate to us the presence of Divinity around and within us?

The universe is full of many powers. An omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent power, pervades all of creation.

This divine Force is immanent in every atom, like sugar in syrup. The Scriptures call this "all-pervading sweetness".

The Divine is an embodiment of sweetness. Although this sweetness is everywhere, it is not possible to recognise its omnipresence. However, it is possible for all to observe the existence of Divinity.

Sweetness in sugarcane, bitterness in neem leaves, burning in chilli, acerbity in lemon and fire in wood - all these are direct proofs of His existence.

A plant germinates from a seed. A bird emerges from an egg. The newborn infant becomes a mother one day. These are all living proofs of the existence of Divinity.

Man experiences exhilaration upon seeing majestic peaks, gurgling rivers, the deep ocean, lush forests and colourful gardens. What is the basis of these phenomena? It is His existence alone. It is not given to everyone to grasp the omnipresence of Him but all have the capacity to identify His presence.

- Summer Showers, May 30, 1995.

Only when you become the embodiment of love can your love comprehend all. Only then will you realise that it is the same Divine who is the Indweller in all beings.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word happy, would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity."

- Carl Jung

[winston]

What is the right way to lead our daily lives and be free from stress and strain?

Without human values, you cannot deliver the fruits of your learning to society. Therefore, human values must be cultivated.

Of these, Truth is the most important. Truth is Divine. Some people went to Buddha and argued about the existence of God. Buddha told them, "All these disputes are a waste of time. Satya, Dharma and Ahimsa (Truth, Righteousness and Nonviolence) are the same as God. Therefore, worship God as the form of Truth first.

Speak the truth. Practice Dharma. Observe nonviolence.

" Now, what is meant by nonviolence? People consider only hurting and harming others as violence. No, no. Harming yourself is also violence. Talking unnecessarily, eating immoderately, and working too much - these are violence. Meaning, one should lead a life of moderation and balance.

Anything done beyond limits is violence. Even writing excessively is violence. Why is it bad to transgress limits? Because it wastes energy. By talking more than necessary, we deplete our intellect.

Therefore, nonviolence can be defined as the regulation of human life along moderate and beneficial paths.

- Summer Showers, May 30, 1995.

It is not good to completely and rigidly control all your senses nor is it desirable to give them complete freedom. One should adopt the middle path.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the basic quality required for undertaking the spiritual journey?

The first sign of spiritual life is detachment (vairagyam). If you have no detachment, you are illiterate as far as spiritual scholarship is concerned.

Detachment is the ABC of spiritual effort. Detachment must become strong enough to make you discard the bondage of the senses.

Just a few minutes of thought, will convince anyone of the hollowness of earthly riches or fame or happiness.

When you are affluent, everyone praises you. If a corpse had a few jewels on it, the proverb says, many will claim kinship with the dead person. But if it has no valuables on it, not a single person will come forward to weep for it!

When you are adding more and more sums of money to your bank account, ask yourself, whether you are not accumulating troubles for yourselves and your children, making it harder for your children to lead clean, comfortable and honourable lives.

When you struggle to achieve paltry fame by devious means, remember who among crores of your countrymen are honoured today and for what!

Don’t you see that only those are honoured everywhere who gave up, renounced and sought the more difficult road of Divine-realisation instead of the easier path of world-realisation?

- Divine Discourse, Sep 08, 1963.

Detachment, Faith and Love - these are the pillars on which peace rests.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the only effective way to escape all the sorrows of human life?

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 very much like that in no time.

The world is full of sorrow and the human body is full of disease. Our life is full of turbulent thoughts and is like a dilapidated house.

Under these conditions, according to Adi Sankara, it is possible to live in a peaceful manner, only by following the divine path and getting over all our worldly attachments.

So long as one does not know who he is, one cannot escape these sorrows. So long as one does not realise the Easwara Tatwa (Principle of Divinity) or the presence of Easwara in everything, one cannot escape this sorrow.

So long as one does not understand that to be born, to grow, to live and to die, is only for one purpose and that is to understand the nature of Atma (Inner-Self), the one imperishable thing, it is not possible for him to escape this sorrow.

- Summer Showers, Jun 02, 1973.

The Divine is a photographer who takes the photograph without cautioning us with the word, “Ready”. Therefore, for us to be photographed well in the film-plate of His Heart, we should be ready always.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What should be our approach to tribulations and challenges in life?

Welcome all the blows of fate, all the misfortunes and miseries, as gold welcomes the crucible, the hammer and the anvil, in order to get shaped into a jewel.

Or as the cane welcomes the chopper, the crusher, the boiler, the pan, the sprayer and the dryer, so that its sweetness may be preserved and used as sugar by all.

“This is done in order to teach the Kaliyuga (the era we are now in) a lesson: never seek power, position or pelf but submit to the "Will of The Divine" in a completely resigned way, so that you may be ever happy and unmoved.”

- Divine Discourse, Sep 08, 1963.

He will foster you from within you, just as He has saved and fostered so many saints who have placed faith in Him.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What must we offer in the sacred fire of the Yajna?

Sometimes some persons tend to indulge in petty thefts. This is derived from previous lives spent as a cat.

Similarly, the vacillating and fickle nature displayed by a person, may be attributed to a previous life as a monkey. Fickle-mindedness is characteristic of the monkey.

Some persons are incurably ungrateful. They indulge even in harming those who help them. This is not a human trait. How, then, is it present in a man? It is because he must have been a serpent in a previous birth.

The serpent is notorious for emitting poison even when fed on milk. So, an ungrateful person must have been a serpent in some previous life.

One should offer therefore, at the altar of his mind, as a sacrifice his stubbornness, thieving propensity, ingratitude and pride. This is the Inner Yajna.

Unfortunately, instead of performing sacrifices of this kind, people treat goats and fowl as offerings. As a result, the bad qualities continue to grow in man.

It is to eliminate this evil sense of ingratitude that external sacrifices like Yajnas and Yagas, have been recommended to man.

Yajnas enable us to promote and refine the beneficent qualities in man.

- Divine Discourse, Oct 10, 1983.

The inner meaning of yajna is to recognise one's inherent divinity and offer all one's bad qualities as a sacrificial offering at the sacred site of one's mind.

Source: radiosai.org