Life 47 (May 24 - Jan 25)

[winston]

What is the purpose of any Divine Advent?

Once people are filled with love, all Dharma, justice and truth will be installed in them. Without love, righteousness will be a mechanical ritual.

What kind of righteousness can there be without love? What justice can there be? It will be a lifeless corpse.

Love is life. Without love, no man can exist for a moment. Hence, Love is the form of the Supreme Divine.

It is to preach the doctrine of love that the Avatar and other divine incarnations made their advent on earth. According to the place, time and circumstances, prevailing then, different names were given to Him.

These differences are like different delicacies made from sugar to appeal to different preferences of children. These delicacies may be in the shape of a peacock, dog or fox. But what is common to all of them is sugar!

- Divine Discourse, Sep 02, 1991.

It is to show to humanity how human lives can be divinised that Avatars come from time to time.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the purpose of any Divine Advent?

Once people are filled with love, all Dharma, justice and truth will be installed in them. Without love, righteousness will be a mechanical ritual.

What kind of righteousness can there be without love? What justice can there be? It will be a lifeless corpse.

Love is life. Without love, no man can exist for a moment. Hence, Love is the form of the Supreme Divine.

It is to preach the doctrine of love that the Avatar and other divine incarnations made their advent on earth. According to the place, time and circumstances, prevailing then, different names were given to Him.

These differences are like different delicacies made from sugar to appeal to different preferences of children. These delicacies may be in the shape of a peacock, dog or fox. But what is common to all of them is sugar!

- Divine Discourse, Sep 02, 1991.

It is to show to humanity how human lives can be divinised that Avatars come from time to time.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

When the Divine is beyond any experience that we may have in the world, how can we recognise Him in this world?

A distant star like the Pole Star can be pointed to someone by reference to some nearby physical object like a tree.

Likewise, the Scriptures, while not demonstrating the Divine, have helped to indicate the path leading to the realisation of the Divine.

The spectacle of a dense forest confers delight. The sight of a tall mountain excites wonder. The torrent in a river makes one rejoice. All these are evidence of the power of the Divine.

The stars shine. The planets revolve. The sun blazes forth. The wind blows. All these are signs of the Divine at work.

When you see the spark of a fire, you can infer the nature of fire. If you know the nature of a drop of water, you can understand the nature of Ganga.

Likewise, if you understand the nature of the atom, you can understand the nature of the entire cosmos.

Recognising this truth, the Scriptures declared: "The Divine is subtler than the atom and vaster than the vastest."

- Divine Discourse, Sep 04, 1996.

On deep enquiry, you will know that you are in the Divine, He is in you and you are Him.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why should we welcome trials and tribulations?

Human life is beset with ups and downs, joys and sorrows. These experiences are intended to serve as guideposts for man.

Life would be stale if there were no trials and difficulties. It’s these difficulties which bring out human values in man.

Today, people want instant salvation, without the slightest effort or sacrifice on their part. If such instant salvation is achieved, it will vanish also in a trice! Only that which is got by hard effort will yield lasting benefits.

People pray to rid them of difficulties and losses. This is a wrong kind of prayer. Difficulties must be welcomed and overcome. By overcoming troubles, the Divine must be experienced.

You cannot get the juice of the sugarcane without crushing it. You cannot enhance the brilliance of a diamond without cutting it and making many facets!

- Divine Discourse, Sep 02, 1991.

You must have the skill to swim across the waves of joy and grief, of pain and profit.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

To reap the harvest of bliss, what should we do?

The Formless comes in human form when the virtue of the good and vice of the wicked, reach a certain stage.

To know the truth of the Avatar, one must culture the mind, as a farmer does the field.

He must clear the field of thorny undergrowth, wild creepers and tenuous roots. He must plough the land, water it and sow seeds well. He must guard the seedlings and tender plants from insect pests as well as from the depredations of goats and cattle; he must put up a fence all around.

So too, egoism, pride and greed, must be removed from the heart; Sathya, Japa, Dhyana (truth, repetition of the Divine's name and meditation), form ploughing and levelling;

Love is the water that must soak into the field and make it soft and rich; the Name is the seed and Devotion is the sprout;

Desire and Anger are the cattle and the fence is discipline; Ananda (bliss) is the harvest!

- Divine Discourse, Nov 23, 1964.

He comes, to confer Ananda, to foster Ananda, to teach ways of acquiring and activating Ananda.

Source: radiosai.olrg

[winston]

Even though the concept of equality in society is important, what is the nuance that is often missed out?

You hear nowadays of equality of each being equal to the rest. This is a wrong notion, for we find parents and children differently equipped; when one is happy, the other is miserable!

There is no equality in hunger or joy! Of course, all are equally entitled to love and empathy and to the grace of the Divine.

All are entitled to medicines in the hospital but what is given to one should not be given to another! There can be no equality in doling out medicines! Each deserves the medicine that will cure him of his illness.

This struggle in the name of equality is only one of the ways in which man is trying to get Ananda (Bliss)! In almost all parts of the world, man is today pursuing many such shortcuts and wrong paths to achieve Ananda.

Without reforming conduct, daily behaviour, the little acts of daily life, Ananda will be beyond reach. Conduct is the most essential!

- Divine Discourse, Nov 23, 1964.

When you recognise the One as present in all beings and respect everyone as a manifestation of the Divine, you will achieve true equality.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Where should the quest for the Divine lead us?

From ancient times, the questions, "Where is the Divine?" and "How does He appear?" have been agitating the minds of people.

The answers have been sought by different ways of investigation. The believers, non-believers, those with doubts and others, have not been able to get clear answers to these questions.

To comprehend the truth, one should look within oneself. This cannot be learnt from textbooks or from teachers.

Consciousness is there in the mind and pervades everywhere. The power of vision in the eye and of taste in the tongue is derived from this Consciousness.

People are using the sense organs but do not know the source of the power which activates them.

Chaitanya cannot be comprehended by the physical vision. It is within everyone in very close proximity.

People undertake external exercises and spiritual practices in vain to find it. The entire Creation is a manifestation of the Divine Will.

Prakriti (Nature) is the manifestation of the Divine. Man is also part of Prakriti and thus has the Divine power in him.

- Divine Discourse, Sep 19, 1993.

To experience the Divinity within, one has to see the Divine in all others and render them service in that spirit.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

How can we say that the creation has the same nature as the Creator?

The Divine is Full; Creation is Full; even when Creation happened and the Cosmos appeared to be produced from the Divine, there was no diminution in the Fullness of the Full.

You go to the bazaar to purchase a kilogram of jaggery. The keeper of the shop brings from his store a big lump, and he slices off a portion, weighing about a kilogram; he then weighs it and gives us in return for the price amount, one kilogram of jaggery.

We sample a piece from the big lump and we expect the portion to behave as sweetly as the original lump. We go home and take a little to prepare the sweet drink called panakam. The panakam is sweet; the kilogram of jaggery and the mother lump - all are equally sweet.

Fullness is the quality of the Divine; it is found in part or portion or in half or whole. Quantity is not the criterion; quality is.

In the visible world that has been taken from the substance of the Divine, this quality is found equally full. We shall not consider the world as anything less than the Divine.

- Divine Discourse, Jul 23, 1975.

To experience the fullness of Love, you must fill your hearts completely with Love.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the purpose behind the worship of idols as the representation of Divinity? How should we benefit from such worship?

You may install idols and worship them. But do not forget the inner significance of all worship.

All external activities are necessary only to help you get into the spirit of non-duality and experience unity in diversity.

Love and sacrifice are very important. Where there is pure, unsullied, selfless, sacred and sublime love, there is no fear at all.

Giving and not getting, is the underlying principle of spiritual sadhana.

Your heart is full of love but you are using it only for selfish purposes instead of diverting it towards the Divine. He is in the heart and not in the head.

The heart is full of love. On these festival days, you should remember that the Divinee is one, and all religions uphold the same principle of "One Divine, who is Omnipresent."

You should not have contempt for any religion, as each is a pathway to Him. Fostering love towards your fellow beings, receive the noble love of the Divine. This is the goal of life.

- Divine Discourse, Sep 09, 1994.

Perform your worship to the Divine with awareness of the truth that the Divine is omnipresent and is therefore in the idol that is worshipped.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What should be the core of all our spiritual practices and rituals?

Awareness of one’s identity, of being the Atma (Inner-Self), is the sign of wisdom, the lighting of the lamp which scatters darkness.

That Atma is the embodiment of Bliss, of Peace, of Love but without knowing that all these exist in oneself, man seeks them from outside of himself and exhausts himself in that disappointing pursuit.

Birds that fly far from the masts of a ship must return to those very masts, for they have no other place to fold their tired wings and stay!

Devoid of this wisdom (jnana), all efforts to seek spiritual bliss and peace are futile.

You may have rice, lentils, salt, vegetables and tamarind; but without a fire to cook them soft and palatable, they are as good as non-existent!

So too, japam (mantra chanting), dhyanam (meditation), puja (ceremonial worship) and pilgrimage, are all ineffective, if the knowledge of one's basic reality and identity is not there to warm up the process.

The Atma is the source and spring of all joy and peace; this must be cognised and dwelt upon. Without this cognition, human life is an opportunity that is lost!

- Divine Discourse, Mar 16, 1966.

Love is the basis for this self-discovery. Love is the means and love is the proof.

Source: radiosai.org