Life 23 (Jul 14 - Jan 15)

[winston]

What is the most significant period in one’s life? What should we focus on during our entire life?

Just as the cultivation season is the most important time for the farmer, the youth is the most important time in the life of a student.

The farmer waits for the opportune moment to sow his seeds so that he can reap rich harvest. Time is a very critical element for the success of the crop.

During the cultivation season, the farmer does not care about food, water or sleep, and works hard with his entire focus on achieving a good harvest. He believes that a good crop is the only source of all happiness.

So too, for the student, the period of their education is like the cultivation season. It is the most important time and is the very basis of their lives.

They must dedicate all their time, without worrying even about hunger, thirst and sleep, or loss and gain, and must only focus on building their good character and gaining full and complete knowledge.

- Divine Discourse, Dec 25, 1980.

Habits mould character and character decides one’s destiny.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why is the present moment ‘golden’? What should we let go?

Everyone is very interested about their future.

What is future? It is based on the past. Don’t brood over the past and don’t worry about the future. Past is past.

What is the use in thinking about it or worrying about something that is dead and gone? Just forget it!

Present is very important. Live in the moment and follow the present. Often, many think of the past or of the future and ruin the present. Many times you feel you were happy in the past and are unhappy now.

To what extent were you happy then? Has your attitude changed since the past? Has the dirtiness in your mind been cleansed?

Believe that you are happy now; you have sufficiency in everything. Your mind is right now blessed.

You must always “Help Ever and Hurt Never”. Appreciate the importance of the “present” and work for your progress, living in the pres ent and living in the moment.

- Divine Discourse, Aug 22, 2007.

Only if you act righteously in the present, can the future be good and ennoblin

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the basis of all creation? Why and when do sages and Avatars descend on earth?

The Divine alone possesses the strength to create anything and everything, both permanent and impermanent.

He is all knowing and omnipresent. He created this world with His Divine Will (Sankalpa).

The Lord is the basis of all creation. He is the basis of jewellery; if there is no gold, then there is no jewel. Clay is the basis of the pot; if there is no clay, then there is no creation.

Similarly if there is no Divinity, then there is no creation. He is omnipresent, omnipotent and omnipresent.

Everything around us is Divine. People, in their ignorance, forget this Divine Principle (Atma).

In order to jostle human beings from their deep slumber of ignorance and greed, great sages and Divine Incarnations descend on earth. Whenever ego and pride becomes second nature of human beings and ignorance reigns supreme, moreover when demonic nature of human beings are at peak, Divine Incarnations (Avatars) descend on earth to restore righteousness to its pristine glory.

- Divine Discourse, Dec 25, 1980

The Divine's love descends equally on all people. A fragrant flower retains its fragrance whether you hold in the right hand or the left.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Intensity Free of All Attachment

In the state of passion without a cause, there is intensity free of all attachment;

But when passion has a cause, there is attachment, and attachment is the beginning of sorrow.

Most of us are attached; we cling to a person, to a country, to a belief, to an idea, and when the object of our attachment is taken away or otherwise loses its significance, we find ourselves empty, insufficient.

This emptiness we try to fill by clinging to something else, which again becomes the object of our passion.

- Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Source: www.jkrishnamurti.com

[winston]

Why do we sometimes fight?

Even animals react based on your feelings. As is the feeling, so is the reaction.

Every being goes by these three: reaction, reflection and resound.

It is only the evil tendencies, the bad feelings amongst human beings which cause wild reaction from animals.

Two sons born in the same family constantly fight. What is the reason for hatred? Their own minds are responsible for their temperament.

Never have bad temperament. You must always cultivate and develop noble feelings. All of you have good upbringing, good family and good education. You must upkeep the name, honour and reputation of your family and the University you studied.

To earn a good name, you must have good friendship. “Tell me who your friends are, I shall tell you who you are” is a famous quote.

As is the company, so you are. Therefore always seek and keep good company – it is your good fortune to have and be in good company.

- Divine Discourse, Aug 27, 2007.

Make friends after proper enquiry. Love all, hate none. But in your heart, keep good people only.

Source: radiosai.org -

[winston]

To Exploit Is to Be Exploited

As most of us seek power in one form or another, the hierarchical principle is established, the novice and the initiate, the pupil and the Master, and even among the Masters there are degrees of spiritual growth.

Most of us love to exploit and be exploited, and this system offers the means, whether hidden or open.

To exploit is to be exploited. The desire to use others for your psychological necessities makes for dependence, and when you depend you must hold, possess; and what you possess possesses you.

Without dependence, subtle or gross, without possessing things, people, and ideas, you are empty, a thing of no importance.

You want to be something, and to avoid the gnawing fear of being nothing you belong to this or that organization, to this or that ideology, to this church or that temple; so you are exploited, and you in your turn exploit.

- Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Source: www.jkrishnamurti.com

[winston]

Become the teacher and the disciple for yourself

Q: When a man has a message, the relationship between a man and his message is usually a teacher and his teachings.

And the teacher often has followers, and his message is a system - why don't you consider yourself a teacher and your message a system?

K: Generally a teacher has a message and followers - a teacher. Why don't you consider yourself as a teacher and have followers?

I have made it all fairly clear, haven't I? Don't follow anybody and don't accept anybody as a teacher except you yourself become the teacher and the disciple for yourself.

- Krishnamurti, Fourth Public Talk at Brockwood Park, September 1971

Source: www.jkrishnamurti.com

[winston]

What does it mean to die?

What does it mean to die? To give up everything.

Death cuts you off with a very, very, very sharp razor from your attachments, from your gods, from your superstitions, from your desire for comfort next life and so on.

I am going to find out what death means because it is as important as living. So how can I find out, actually, not theoretically, what it means to die?

I actually want to find out, as you want to find out. I am speaking for you, so don't go to sleep. What does it mean to die?

Put that question to yourself. While we are young, or when we are very old, this question is always there. It means to be totally free, to be totally unattached to everything that man has put together, or what you have put together totally free.

No attachments, no gods, no future, no past. You don't see the beauty of it, the greatness of it, the extraordinary strength of it while living to be dying.

You understand what that means? While you are living, every moment you are dying, so that throughout life you are not attached to anything. That is what death means.

- Krishnamurti, The Future is Now, Chapter 10

Source: www.jkrishnamurti.com

[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.

- Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Source: www.jkrishnamurti.com

[winston]

How should we purify our mind and remove or reduce negativities within us?

The moment a bad thought comes, you must teach your mind, “Oh mind, are you on the path of human values or on the path of an animal? This thought is an animal thought – you are not an animal.”

Train your mind saying, “Oh mind, human beings are not meant to eat, sleep and enjoy pleasures. Shed all animal qualities, give up previous habits and old ways. You must get away from all evil”.

If you thus teach your mind, its speed will be lessened and the flow of thoughts will change. You must consistently teach your mind to transform your thoughts.

There will be difficulties in the process. But let them come – the one who works hard and passes through these hardships will enjoy abundant peace.

Without effort, there cannot be gain or pleasure. Hence don’t worry about difficulties.

- Divine Discourse, 9 March 1993.

To purify your mind starve it from the bad food of objective pleasures that it runs after, and feed it on the wholesome food of thoughts of the Divine.

Source: radiosai.org