Sai Inspires - 4th December 2005 from Prashanti Nilayam

[Guest guest]

of Heart2Heart? Go here to read it now. How should your service be, even if it

is modest? Swami tells you today. Sai Inspires - 4th December 2005

Help rendered however small, if it comes from the deeper urges of service

welling in the heart, is as good as offering one's life itself. Half-hearted

and hesitating help, however great is deplorable. - Rama Katha Rasa Vahini, P.

54. Tell A Friend about Sai

Inspires DID YOU DO AS YOU SAID Loving Sai Ram and greetings from

Prashanti Nilayam. One of the wonderful things about Swami is that He not only

makes Spirituality quite simple but also very relevant to daily life. Not many

realise that to become spiritual, we do not have to mull over complicated texts

and commentaries, wondering what they are all about. All that stuff is, as

Swami often says, bookish knowledge. As Swami often reminds us, what really

matters in life is PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE and not Bookish Knowledge. Indeed, it is

by way of stressing this that decades ago, Swami used to narrate little stories

or parables, now better known as CHINNA KATHAS [shortStories]. One of the

short stories, a famous one really, is entitled: DID YOU DO AS YOU SAID YOU

WOULD?

This is an oft-quoted story, and any number of dramas have been staged, based on

it. Everyone applauds loudly when the story is narrated or enacted; and yet, in

day-to-day life, how many people really bother about the message contained in

that wonderful and all-important tale? People frequently make promises only to

forget them, quite easily we might add. We are not talking here of big promises

but small ones, that is to say promises related to seemingly small things.

Somehow, people seem to forget that a promise is a promise, even though the

thing promised might be a minor matter. Here is a common experience of ours.

Many devotees drop into the Studio during their pilgrimage to Prashanti

Nilayam, and

flood us with compliments that we really do not deserve. For our part, we try to

find out from these people how we could improve our services. When this love

feast is over and the visitors prepare to leave, they invariably ask us: “How

can we be of help you?” or “What can we do for you?” Our standard answer is:

“All we need is your good wishes. If you can, please tell people who do not

know about Radio Sai.” Most agree to do so and there the matter ends. However,

some insist that they must do something more for us, and so, just to make them

happy we say, “Maybe you can share with us your collection of vintage photos,”

or something like that. The visitors promise that they would do it the moment

they return; we then shake hands and say goodbye. Time passes, and nothing

is heard from the other side about the promise. We are not bothered because we

made the request just in order to please the other party. One fine day, the

person who made the promise returns to Prashanti Nilayam and runs into one of

us in the Mandir. The person becomes profusely apologetic and says, “You know,

I got so busy when I returned. There were so many things to do,” and so forth.

We smile and reply, “We understand; things are so hectic out there.” This

sort of thing happens regularly. We are not complaining but our point is

simply this: why thrust a promise when one is not sure about keeping it? It once

used to be said that a gentleman’s word was his bond – not any longer it seems.

We describe our experience mainly by way of drawing attention to the message

Swami’s little tale has. The funny thing is that many people forget even the

promise they make to Swami. Many years ago when Swami was in Brindavan, He once

sent some Vibhuti Prasaadam through a devotee travelling from Brindavan to

Prashanti Nilayam. Swami told this devotee, “Listen, so and so in the Ashram is

not well and has sent word praying for

normal">Prasaadam. Since you are going there, take these packets and make sure

that you give these to the person concerned, the moment you reach there.” The

devotee promised to do exactly as Bhagavan wanted him to do, and left for

Prashanti Nilayam. What happened when he reached here? He had many things to

do and completely forgot to deliver the Prasaadam. When he returned to

Brindavan, the first thing that Swami asked him was, “Did you deliver the

Prasaadam?” The man got a shock and sheepishly confessed, “No Swami, I forgot.

I am sorry!”

justify"> That is invariably the response of all such people who forget their

promise – “I am sorry, I forgot!” Swami says that people forget when they

attach low value to the words they speak. Swami points out that the life breath

is God, and breath is important for speech. Thus, the spoken word is verily

Divine and in fact the Bible declares that the Word is God. Considering that

the faculty of speech is something not available to any other living species,

we must learn to respect this faculty as a supremely valuable gift of God, and

attach the greatest importance to it. If we do, we would not only be careful

about what we say but also give respect to the promises we make. There is no

such thing as a minor promise or a major promise. A word given is a word given,

and it

normal">must be respected because it is Divine. By the way, since word is

Divine, don’t you think we must avoid at all costs words spoken in anger and

hatred, for example? Hope you agree with our views! May be you don’t but we do

not mind. Whatever your views are, we would very much like to know what they

are. Do take a minute off to write us, won’t you? In conclusion, we would

like to thank all those who are responding most warmly to this weekly feature

of ours. we really appreciate the opportunity given to us to share a few

moments with you during the weekend, and are grateful for the same.

New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language:

EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Jai Sai Ram.

With Love and Regards, "Heart2Heart" RadioSai e-Journal Team, In Sai Service.

To see the complete schedule of today's RadioSai programmes,

Visit us at www.radiosai.org to know more about RadioSai and our

e-Journal "Heart 2 Heart".

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[Guest guest]

sairam heart to heart team,

I totally agree with the fact that A Promise made should never become a promise

broken.We should watch our words before speaking or promising anyone and act

accordingly.Swami has therefore rightly said WATCH YOUR

WORDS,ACTIONS,THOUGHTS,CHARACTER AND HEART.We should have constant integrated

awareness as swami says.Then only we can perform our duties whatsoever ,be it

help to someone or fulfilling a promise made to others.

I am very happy and thankful to swami for all the sai literature i am able

to read from the various articles and sai inspires which always makes every day

of mine a beautiful one.I pray swami to bless the entire team for the wonderful

service you are doing.

Jai sai ram

regds Saijyoti

 

 

With best regards

SAIJYOTI.VISWANATH

PH-080-30914943

"LOVE IS GOD ,GOD IS LOVE"

[Guest guest]

Sairam

Please write your comments/opinion to H2H team..

 

h2h (AT) radiosai (DOT) org

 

Sairam

papu

 

 

-

saijyoti - viswanath

saibabanews

Monday, December 05, 2005 12:34 AM

[saibabanews] Re: Sai Inspires - 4th December 2005 from Prashanti Nilayam

sairam heart to heart team,