Life 32 (Jan 19 - May 19)

[winston]

What is a simple dictum from the scriptures elders and children must practice alike in our family?

Make every effort to understand the greatness of your culture and traditions.

Respect everyone. Never be rude to elders or guests who visit your house.

Whether your parents are at home or not, offer your guests a seat and give them a glass of cold water or buttermilk. peak to them with love.

How many children are following such noble practices in the present times? Even when you speak on the phone, you should talk in a loving and respectful manner.

Respect does not mean merely saying, 'hello'. You should offer your salutations with humility and reverence.

Salutations means offering respects without a trace of ego and attachment. Our scriptures advise you to revere your mother, father, preceptor and guest as the Divine.

Cultivate and practice humility, love and reverence like the ancient citizens. That is the true sign of an educated person.

- Divine Discourse, Apr 15, 2003.

It is from the house that the human values originate, blossom and foster the sacred culture.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Fear

The Divine is in your heart. Wherever you go and whatever you do, it is known to Him even if you think none has noticed it.

Many start worrying about petty temporary things that are passing clouds and sometimes falter in their faith and devotion. This is not correct.

Never give up devotion. When you spend your time thinking of the Divine and chanting His name, you will never come to grief.

Follow the dictum, "Speak the Truth, Practice Righteousness”. You are bound to emerge successful always.

Your good work will beget His grace without fail. Sin or merit comes only from your own deeds, not from outside.

Truth is common to all countries and all times. If you follow truth, which is Divine, you will invariably do only sacred or righteous work.

Divine love flows to everyone who performs righteous acts. Remember, righteous actions (Dharma) should always go hand-in-hand with selfless love (Prema). If separated, they are meaningless.

- Divine Discourse, Apr 18, 1998.

The Divine is in you in the form of conscience. Listen carefully and follow your conscience.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Immediate action

If you are in contact with anything, with your wife, with your children, with the sky, with the clouds, with any fact, the moment thought interferes with it you lose contact.

Thought springs from memory. Memory is the image, and from there you look and therefore, there is a separation between the observer and the observed.

You have to understand this very deeply. It is this separation of the observer from the observed that makes the observer want more experience, more sensations, and so he is everlastingly pursuing, seeking.

It has to be completely and totally understood that as long as there is an observer, the one that is seeking experience, the censor, the entity that evaluates, judges, condemns, there is no immediate contact with what is.

When you have pain, physical pain, there is direct perception; there is not the observer who is feeling the pain; there is only pain. Because there is no observer there is immediate action.

There is not the idea and then action, but there is only action when there is pain, because there is a direct physical contact. The pain is you; there is pain.

As long as this is not completely understood, realized, explored and felt deeply, as long as it is not wholly grasped, not intellectually, not verbally, that the observer is the observed, all life becomes conflict, a contradiction between opposing desires, the “what should be” and the “what is.”

You can do this only if you are aware whether you are looking at it as an observer, when you look at a flower or a cloud or anything.

The Book of Life, August 21, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the inter-relationship between Love, Truth and Righteousness?

Love is another name for Righteousness. True Love is priceless.

It has no trace of selfishness in it. It does not change with time. It is pure and unsullied.

It always grows and never diminishes. It is spontaneous.

The Divine’s love is spontaneous; it is free from selfishness, unwavering and always full.

Ordinary human love is motivated by selfish considerations. It is liable to change owing to changes in time and circumstance.

For persons immersed in selfish love, it is difficult to comprehend or realise the greatness of Selfless Divine Love.

Love wears the mantle of Truth. And one wedded to Truth is ever young and vigorous, says the scriptures.

The Bible also declares that the body gets fortified by adherence to Truth. Truth should not be confined to speech. It must express itself in action.

Only the one who is truthful in word and deed can be esteemed as a genuine human being, says Prophet Mohammed.

- Divine Discourse, Dec 25, 1984.

There is no nobler quality in the world than love. It is wisdom. It is righteousness. It is wealth. It is Truth.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why do we follow?

Why do we accept, why do we follow?

We follow another’s authority, another’s experience and then doubt it; this search for authority and its sequel, disillusionment, is a painful process for most of us.

We blame or criticize the once accepted authority, the leader, the teacher, but we do not examine our own craving for an authority who can direct our conduct.

Once we understand this craving we shall comprehend the significance of doubt.

The Book of Life, January 20, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What is the solvent for the toughest of obstacles?

In the pursuit of the good and holy life, one may encounter many difficulties and disturbances. Those who hate others will ultimately be consumed by their own hatred.

Many doubts and questions crop up. It is only when all difficulties are faced squarely and the troubles are borne with patience and fortitude, that we can understand the true nature of Reality.

The transforming power of Love is boundless. St. Paul, who was originally an inveterate critic of Jesus, was transformed by Christ's love into the greatest apostle of Jesus.

Pure Love will never submit to the forces of envy or hatred however powerful they may be. Selfless Love will prevail over them for sure.

You should not allow yourselves to be overwhelmed in any way by difficulties and sorrows, doubts and disappointments. You must have faith.

Have confidence in yourself and strive to understand well the nature of the Divine's love. To secure that love is the sacred goal of human life.

- Divine Discourse, Dec 25, 1984.

Pure Love is the key to open the doors locked by egoism and greed.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

The mind is the result of time

The mind is being influenced all the time to think along a certain line. It used to be that only the organized religions were after your mind but now governments have largely taken over that job.

They want to shape and control your mind. On the surface, the mind can resist their control... Superficially you have some say in the matter, but below the surface, in the deep unconscious, there is the whole weight of time, of tradition, urging you in a particular direction.

The conscious mind may to some extent control and guide itself but in the unconscious your ambitions, your unsolved problems, your compulsions, superstitions, fears, are waiting, throbbing, urging....

This whole field of the mind is the result of time; it is the result of conflicts and adjustments, of a whole series of acceptances without full comprehension. Therefore, we live in a state of contradiction; our life is a process of endless struggle.

We are unhappy, and we want to be happy. Being violent, we practice the ideal of non-violence. So there is a conflict going on—the mind is a battlefield.

We want to be secure, knowing inwardly, deeply, that there is no such thing as security at all. The truth is that we do not want to face the fact that there is no security; therefore, we are always pursuing security, with the resultant fear of not being secure.

The Book of Life, September 24, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What should we do to attain oneness with the Divine?

The spiritual practices that you perform may be compared to the process of conversion of milk into butter.

Your human body is your home. Your heart is the vessel in which the milk of consciousness is boiled on the stove of devotion. The lid for this vessel is earnestness.

When the fire of discrimination is lit, the cream of understanding rises upward from the boiling milk. To prevent the cat of maya from stealing the milk, the door has to be barred by the gate of wisdom.

After the milk is cooled by tranquility and the buttermilk of the divine name is added to it, the curd of divine grace results. When this curd is churned with the rod of knowledge and the rope of love, the whey of ignorance is separated and the butter of the Atmic Reality emerges.

Such a realised soul definitely attains oneness with the Divine.

- Divine Discourse, Feb 23, 1990.

Most people remember the Divine only during difficulties. Earn the Grace of Him and mountains of troubles will vanish.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the important step we must take to attain Union with the Divine?

Incarnation is for the sake of fostering righteousness (dharma), for demarcating and directing it, and to show mankind the true path of desireless activity.

The doctor first diagnoses the disease. Then he prescribes the course of treatment. So too, you must submit yourself to the diagnosis of your illness, viz. misery, travail, and pain.

Investigate fearlessly and with care, and you will find that while your basic nature is bliss, you have falsely identified yourself with the temporary, the frivolous, the paltry, and that attachment has brought you all the sorrow.

You must realise that both joy and sorrow are passing phases, like white or dark clouds across the blue sky, and you have to learn to treat both prosperity and adversity with equanimity.

If only time is well spent, the ignorant can become an ascetic of the highest order and that ascetic can also become one with the Divined, the Universal Substance and Substratum.

- Divine Discourse, Nov 23, 1961.

Self-realisation is the goal. Love is the means.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

If the mind is occupied

Whether change is brought about consciously or unconsciously, it is still the same.

Conscious change implies effort; and unconscious endeavor to bring about a change also implies an effort, a struggle.

So long as there is a struggle, conflict, the change is merely enforced, and there is no understanding; and therefore it is no longer a change at all.

So, is the mind capable of meeting the problem of change—of acquisitiveness, for example—without making an effort, just seeing the whole implication of acquisitiveness?

Because you cannot see the whole content of acquisitiveness totally, so long as there is any endeavor to change it. Real change can only take place when the mind comes to the problem afresh, not with all the jaded memories of a thousand yesterdays.

Obviously, you cannot have a fresh, eager mind if the mind is occupied. And the mind ceases to be occupied only when it sees the truth about its own occupation.

You cannot see the truth if you are not giving your whole attention, if you are translating what is being said into something which will suit you, or translating it into your own terms.

You must come to something new with a fresh mind, and a mind is not fresh when it is occupied, consciously or unconsciously.

The Book of Life, October 23, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com