Life 32 (Jan 19 - May 19)

[winston]

What is the attitude with which we must carry on all our duties - personal, professional or philanthropic?

Be good, be serviceable, be useful, be kind, be Divine-fearing — then the confidence of the people will be yours.

Faith is the very breath of victory — faith in oneself, faith in the good work one has set upon, and faith in its success despite signs of failure.

Attachment and hatred, are the greatest enemies of progress in any work. If someone is deluded into believing that they are saving others, then woe be to them, for there is no ‘other’ at all!

The fundamental flaw here is ignorance! If only you are wise, you will know that all individuals are waves on the surface of the self-same ocean.

All are One, injury to the hand is pain to the whole body. Hence, selfless action is the ideal to be practised!

Perform all actions without selfish desire! Desire for gain is like the poison fangs; when they are pulled out, the snake of karma is rendered harmless.

- Divine Discourse, Sep 15, 1963.

Test all your thoughts, words and actions on this touchstone: “Will this be approved by the Divine? Will this rebound to His renown?”

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

You and I are the problem, not the world

The world is not something separate from you and me; the world, society, is the relationship that we establish or seek to establish between each other.

So you and I are the problem, and not the world, because the world is the projection of ourselves, and to understand the world we must understand ourselves.

That world is not separate from us; we are the world, and our problems are the world’s problems.

The Book of Life, March 20, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Why is it important to expand our hearts and enlarge the nature of our love?

The love that is concentrated on oneself, is as a bulb that illuminates the room alone, without shedding light outside the four walls.

It is confined to the senses and never opens out to others, who are your kith and kin in the Divine.

There is another type of love, larger and deeper, which expands into the members of one's family. It is like moonlight, not strong enough to make things clear, but enough to move about in.

It also undergoes rise and fall, increase and decrease. But the most desirable type of love is like the sunlight - ever engaged in purifying, activating, and illumining without any distinction.

This love will make one act ever in the spirit of dedication to the Divine. Then all the acts would be elevating and holy.

- Divine Discourse, Dec 17, 1964.

Pure love for the Divine will dispel ignorance and conceit of man as the Sun dispels the morning mist.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

This pure flame of passion

In most of us there is very little passion.

We may be lustful, we may be longing for something, we may be wanting to escape from something, and all this does give one a certain intensity.

But unless we awaken and feel our way into this flame of passion without a cause, we shall not be able to understand that which we call sorrow.

To understand something you must have passion, the intensity of complete attention.

Where there is the passion for something, which produces contradiction, conflict, this pure flame of passion cannot be; and this pure flame of passion must exist in order to end sorrow, dissipate it completely.

The Book of Life, April 23, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Relationship

Relationship based on mutual need brings only conflict. However interdependent we are on each other, we are using each other for a purpose, for an end.

With an end in view, relationship is not. You may use me and I may use you. In this usage, we lose contact.

A society based on mutual usage is the foundation of violence. When we use another, we have only the picture of the end to be gained. The end, the gain, prevents relationship, communion. In the usage of another, however gratifying and comforting it may be, there is always fear.

To avoid this fear, we must possess. From this possession there arises envy, suspicion, and constant conflict. Such a relationship can never bring about happiness.

A society whose structure is based on mere need, whether physiological or psychological, must breed conflict, confusion and misery. Society is the projection of yourself in relation with another, in which the need and the use are predominant.

When you use another for your need, physically or psychologically, in actuality there is no relationship at all; you really have no contact with the other, no communion with the other.

How can you have communion with the other when the other is used as a piece of furniture, for your convenience and comfort? So, it is essential to understand the significance of relationship in daily life.

The Book of Life, March 5, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Why should we pay attention to not just the outcome of our actions, but the way in which we achieve the goals too?

Whatever happens, never give up the virtuous path.

End results can never justify the means. Means are just as important as the goal; both must be noble!

- Divine Discourse, Mar 31, 1965.

Offer your virtues as flowers to the Divine; virtues that spread beauty and fragrance.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the secret to live in good health and in happiness?

Amongst all living beings, human birth is the rarest. Do not waste such a precious and rare opportunity.

You will lose your humanness when you indulge in falsehood, injustice, and unrighteousness. Therefore have good thoughts, good speech and good vision. See good, do good and be good. This is the inner meaning of life.

Suppose someone criticises you, you should think that this also is for your good. Whatever others may do, think that it is all for your own good.

Perform all actions with the goal of redeeming your life. See to it that you do not lose your humanness under any circumstance.

Lead your life always smilingly and blissfully. Perform all actions with good intentions.

To perform good actions, your thoughts need to be good. When your mind is filled with good thoughts, all bad thoughts disappear. This leads to good health.

Love all, serve all. If you adhere to these principles, you will always have good health.

- Divine Discourse, Jul 3, 2008.

Your vision will become sanctified only when you develop the feeling that all are the embodiments of the Divine.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

A mind that is learning

What do we mean by learning? Is there learning when you are merely accumulating knowledge, gathering information? That is one kind of learning, is it not?

As a student of engineering, you study mathematics, and so on; you are learning, informing yourself about the subject. You are accumulating knowledge in order to use that knowledge in practical ways.

Your learning is accumulative, additive. Now, when the mind is merely taking on, adding, acquiring, is it learning? Or is learning something entirely different?

I say the additive process which we now call learning is not learning at all. It is merely a cultivation of memory, which becomes mechanical; and a mind which functions mechanically, like a machine, is not capable of learning.

A machine is never capable of learning, except in the additive sense. Learning is something quite different, as I shall try to show you.

A mind that is learning never says, “I know,” because knowledge is always partial, whereas learning is complete all the time.

Learning does not mean starting with a certain amount of knowledge, and adding to it further knowledge. That is not learning at all; it is a purely mechanistic process.

To me, learning is something entirely different. I am learning about myself from moment to moment, and the myself is extraordinarily vital; it is living, moving; it has no beginning and no end.

When I say, “I know myself,” learning has come to an end in accumulated knowledge. Learning is never cumulative; it is a movement of knowing which has no beginning and no end.

The Book of Life, September 20, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

The idealist cannot know love

Those who are trying to be celibate in order to achieve God are unchaste, for they are seeking a result or gain and so substituting the end, the result, for sex—which is fear.

Their hearts are without love, and there can be no purity, and a pure heart alone can find reality.

A disciplined heart, a suppressed heart, cannot know what love is. It cannot know love if it is caught in habit, in sensation—religious or physical, psychological or sensate.

The idealist is an imitator and therefore he cannot know love. He cannot be generous, give himself over completely without the thought of himself.

Only when the mind and heart are unburdened of fear, of the routine of sensational habits, when there is generosity and compassion, there is love. Such love is chaste.

The Book of Life, April 19, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Why should we be concerned about the unity of our thoughts, words and deeds always?

The worst action you can perform is to do the opposite of what you preach - to deny by the hand what you dole out of your mouth.

If you cannot live up to your declarations, keep quiet; do not go about advising because otherwise what you are really doing is that you are self-advertising that you are a hypocrite.

Do not preach dharma (virtue) while decrying it in deed. Dharma is steady, unchanging; it can never decline.

What happens is: those who have to practise dharma decline in faith and steadfastness. Every individual is judged by practice, not by the precepts that they pour forth.

The seed grows slowly into a huge spreading tree; so, too, through tiny acts, soft words and kind deeds, man elevates himself into a Divine Being!

- Divine Discourse, Mar 31, 1965.

The spiritual path is the path of detachment, of sense control, and of rigorous mind training.

Source: radiosai.org