Thought for the Day Archive for October 2005

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http://www.saibabalinks.org/tftd/2005/october.htm Thought for the Day Archive

since January 2003 Source: Radio Sai Global Harmony

October 2005

October 1, 2005

Live in the constant contemplation of your kinship with others and with the

Universe. Do good to others, treat all nature kindly, speak soft and sweet

words, become like a child devoid of envy, hate and greed; when your love

crosses the boundaries of your family or community and expands to those beyond,

you have taken the first step to cross the threshold of Maya (delusion).

October 2, 2005

Man has been engaged in exploring the infinite, wonderful secrets of nature in

this marvellous creation in all possible ways. But, due to the vagaries of his

mind, intellect and ego, man has failed to understand the true, eternal and

spiritual basis underlying everything in the Universe and has lost himself in

the pursuit of the external phenomenal world as if it were the only reality. In

the process, he has failed to realize his own true nature and has totally

perverted his mind. The simple truth that everything is permeated by the One

has been lost sight of.

October 3, 2005

It is always preferable to approach God for the fulfillment of one's wants,

rather than cringe before men, who themselves are mere mortals. In his own

silent way, God will transform the mind and turn it towards Sadhana (spiritual

endeavour) and ensure a successful spiritual journey. He cannot allow his

children to lose their way and suffer in the wilderness of the material world.

When you approach God and seek his help and guidance, you have taken the first

step to save yourself. You are then led to accept His will as your own. Thus,

you achieve Shanti (Peace).

October 4, 2005

Love is inherent in man, but like a seed that has to be nourished by water, love

in man has to be fostered by dedicated service. Love is a sacred quality. Love

is like nectar. A man who has tasted the sweetness of Divine Love will not

desire anything else in the world. Life must be a constant manifestation of

love. Nowadays, love is expressed in a constricted, selfish manner. It needs to

be expressed in the form of service to society. Thereby love becomes a

reciprocal, ever-widening experience.

October 5, 2005

Of what use are wealth and position if one has no peace of mind? A quiet

conscience is man's most precious possession. To achieve inner peace, desires

have to be subdued and all thoughts should be centered on God. Engage

yourselves in service activities in a spirit of dedication. True service

consists in helping the poor and the forlorn in the society with humility and

dedication. This is service to the Divine. Practise the saying - "Dil me Ram,

Hath me Kaam." (Serve with you hands having installed God in the heart). Do not

hanker after power and pelf.

October 6, 2005

The Vedas teach that man should adore and worship God in gratitude for His

benedictions. The Bible teaches that he should pray for peace and practise

charity. The Koran would have man show mercy to the suffering and to surrender

his will to the Almighty. All religions have taught what is good, and everyone

should lead a righteous life based on this knowledge. If the minds are pure,

how can any religion be bad? All the religions are different paths leading to

one and the same destination. All devotees should experience this truth and

live up to it in their daily lives. They should lead righteous lives and

thereby experience enduring bliss. Only then will their spiritual effort be

fruitful. Listen to the words of the wise, purify your thoughts and concentrate

your mind on God. God can be installed only in a pure heart. The aim of all

Sadhana (spiritual practices) should be to purify the heart.

October 7, 2005

God has four qualities and it is only when you develop them that you can

understand Him. They are: Love, Beauty, Sweetness and Splendour. The

cultivation of Love is enough to add unto you the other three. When you are

full of Love for the Divine immanent in all creation, that stage is Beauty;

when you are immersed in the sea of Universal Love, you reach the acme of

Sweetness; when your mind loses its identity and merges with the Universal

Mind, then there is Splendour indescribable.

October 8, 2005

Man can achieve Shanti (Peace) only through Love. Shanti is the fruit of the

tree of life without which the tree is a barren stump; it has no value or

validity. The fruit is encased in a bitter skin so that the sweet juice may be

preserved and guarded against marauders. One has to remove the skin before

tasting the sweetness within. The thick rind is symbolic of the six evil

qualities that enshroud the loving heart of man: lust, anger, greed,

attachment, pride and hate. Those who can remove the rind and experience the

sweetness within through rigorous and consistent discipline, attain everlasting

peace that everyone aspires for.

October 9, 2005

The Upanishads have declared that immortality can be experienced only through

Thyaga (renunciation or sacrifice). This renunciation does not mean giving up

hearth and home, kith and kin. It means giving up the transient and impermanent

things of the world. This calls for discrimination between what is permanent and

what is perishable. This kind of discrimination is absent among people today.

Instead, they discriminate between what is convenient and what is unpleasant

and choose the former. Discrimination should be exercised objectively to

determine what is permanent and what is transient, what is good and what is

bad. Only then can man discover the Sat-Chit-Ananda (Being-Awareness-Bliss)

that is within him.

October 10, 2005

All are children of God. He is the sole Lord of mankind. People may seem to

differ in their names and forms and in their beliefs and practices. But the

source is the One alone. Recognition of this basic truth of oneness is

Brahmajnana (Knowledge of the Absolute). This knowledge cannot be gained by

merely studying the scriptures and holding metaphysical discussions. What has

to be recognised is the truth that every being in the universe is an embodiment

of the Supreme. Awareness of the unity that subsumes the diversity is the

highest knowledge.

October 11, 2005

In spite of his precious birth as a human being, man leads a life worse than

that of animals. Man should get rid of Ahamkara (the feeling that he is the

doer). As long as the ego is dominant, the Atmic consciousness will not

develop. The egoist cannot recognise the Atma. It is egoism that is at the root

of all man's troubles. It is a delusion based on the misconceived notion that

the body is real and permanent. The truth is otherwise. From an early age, one

should recognise the evanescence of the body and the senses and control the

desires prompted by the sense organs. Desires are insatiable. The pursuit of

wealth, power and position can only end in misery. Instead, one should take

refuge in God and dedicate all actions to the Divine.

October 12, 2005

Puja (ritual worship) and Yajna (sacrifice) are performed in order to remind you

of the inner yajna which every one of you has to perform to save yourselves from

fear, grief and anxiety. This is the yajna of offering in oblation, the egoistic

desires and emotions, passions, impulses and acts into the flames of dedication

and devotion. In fact, that is the real yajna, of which these are reflections

and prompters. This yajna is only the visible symbolic representation of the

underlying abstract Truth. Just as a child is taught to pronounce words by

making it associate the sounds and the letterforms with pictures of the objects

so named, through this kshara (temporary) symbol the Akshara thathwa (the

Eternal Principle) is brought before the consciousness.

October 13, 2005

You have a bird in your hand, but you are wasting your time and energy

conspiring to catch the bird hiding in the bush. The sounds that make you

believe there is a bird in the bush are, you do not know, only the echoes of

the notes from the throat of the bird in your own hand! The Guru reveals the

Truth and makes you free from the trials and tribulations. In a flash,

ignorance is dispelled and you are immersed in the bliss of Knowledge. Why

ignore the 'existent' and crave for the 'non-existent'? It is the pursuit for

the unreal that is the root of all the fear, the sorrow, the sickness of

humanity.

October 14, 2005

Propagation of Dharma (righteousness) means to promote the practice of Dharma

and not to spread knowledge about it. Only those who practice Dharma are

qualified to propagate it. It is because Dharma and Sathya (truth) have not

been propagated by persons practising them that they have been eclipsed. It is

only when they are practised in daily life that their true nature and value

will be realized. Though Dharma is present everywhere, it is covered by

ignorance and pride, like fire that is covered by ashes or water by moss. These

elements that hide the true nature of Dharma have to be removed so that it may

be revealed to the world.

October 15, 2005

Love for the Divine is devotion. Devotion is not something tangible; it is an

inner experience which springs from the heart. As you think, so you become.

Hence, the heart must be filled with good feelings. The senses must be engaged

in good actions. When the eyes are turned towards God, all creation appears

Divine. When you wear the right kind of spectacles, you see everything clearly.

But if the glasses are not correct, you get a distorted picture and your eyes

are spoilt. Likewise, if your heart is filled with love of God, all your

feelings are sanctified by that love. Other undesirable thoughts drop away.

Devotees should pray to the Lord to come and reside in their pure and tranquil

hearts. The devotee should look upon pain and pleasure alike as designed for

his good. He will not then be affected by troubles. He will regard them as

stages in the evolution of his consciousness.

October 16, 2005

When work is undertaken with an egotistic attitude, impelled by selfish motives

and inspired by hopes of self-advancement, it feeds greed and pride, envy and

hatred. Then, it fosters the feeling of attachment to more and more profitable

ventures. It promotes ingratitude to those who lent their hands and brains and

to God Himself who endowed the person with the urge and the skill. "I did it",

one says when the work succeeds; or "Others spoiled it" one says when it fails.

Resentment, depression and despair follow when the work results in failure. The

more deeply one is attached to the fruits, the more intense and painful is

one's grief when one is disappointed. The only means, therefore, to escape from

both pride and pain is to leave the result to the Will of God, while one is

happy in the thought that one has done one's duty with all the dedication and

care that one is capable of.

October 17, 2005

Despite aeons of evolution and considerable progress in scientific knowledge,

man is not able to make significant progress towards the Divine because of

absence of strenuous striving in the spiritual sphere. Without spiritual

practice, reading religious books and listening to spiritual discourses have no

value. Study of the Upanishads and Shaasthras (spiritual sciences) and reciting

God's names may be good acts in themselves. But, if there is no love, which is

the basis of all Sadhana (spiritual discipline), they are of no use. Love

reinforces one's physical, mental and spiritual energies. Devotional acts

without love are of no avail.

October 18, 2005

God is the embodiment of love. If you wish to experience God, you have to fill

yourselves with love. Through love alone can you experience the embodiment of

love that is God. Man filled with jealousy and hatred is like a blind man who

cannot see the sun however brightly it may shine. He cannot see God however

near God may be. Blinded by ignorance, a man filled with jealousy and hatred

cannot hope to see God, like a blind man groping for something that is near

him. The man filled with good qualities like truth, love, absence of jealousy,

ego and hatred, can see God without searching for Him. He becomes a Jnaani (a

man of spiritual wisdom).

October 19, 2005

Before undertaking any action, answers should be found for the five questions -

who, when, where, what and how. People today act without concern for these

considerations. Everyone must rely on his own judgement using his powers of

observation and discretion. There is a divine power in every limb and organ of

the body. This divine potency is called Angirasa. The name is derived from the

fact that the Divine is present in every Anga (limb) as Rasa (life sustaining

essence). There is no need to search for the Divine outside yourself. You are

Divine. All your powers are Divine potencies.

October 20, 2005

Sai has come in order to achieve the Supreme task of uniting as one family all

mankind, through the bond of brotherhood; of affirming and illumining the Atmic

reality of each being in order to reveal the Divine, which is the basis on which

the entire Cosmos rests; and of instructing all to recognize the common Divine

heritage that binds man to man, so that man can rid himself of the animal in

him and rise to the Divinity which is his goal. I am the embodiment of Love;

Love is My instrument. Those who have recognized My Love and experienced that

Love can assert that they have glimpsed My reality, for the path of Love is the

royal road that leads mankind to Me.

October 21, 2005

When a sculptor transforms a piece of rock into a beautiful idol to be

worshipped in a shrine, what was inert and worthless became sacred. In the same

manner, everything which is petty and worldly should be transformed in course of

time into something sacred and divine. That is the real transformation that

every man must aspire for.

October 22, 2005

The one effective way to conquer all sources of physical and mental disease and

debility is awareness of one's Atmic Reality. That will bring about an upsurge

of Love and Light, for, when one recognizes that he is the Atma, he cognizes

the same Atma in all; he shares the joy and grief of all. When one yearns for

the happiness and prosperity of all mankind, one is blessed with the wisdom and

strength to mark out the way and lead men towards it. He sees God in everyone

and every act of his will be a pure, sincere and sacred offering to God.

October 23, 2005

Youngsters take great pains to acquire degrees for securing good jobs. But they

hardly take any trouble to develop their character and personality. Good

conduct and character are the most essential requisites for a man. They are the

basis for spiritual life. If the spiritual aspect is neglected, man becomes an

artificial, mechanical being with no genuine human quality in him. Many people

today do not understand what is meant by spirituality. It is the knowledge of

Divinity, which is the man's true nature. Spirituality reveals the basic

principle that is immanent in everything and sustains the entire Cosmos.

October 24, 2005

The teacher is like a water storage tank. If there is clean and good water in

the tank, good water will flow through the taps. Students are like the taps and

will prove to be good only when the teachers are good. Teachers should have

lofty ideals so that these can be reflected in their students, who are the

future citizens and leaders. Teachers should first practise what they want to

teach to the students. They should have a feeling of Thyaga (sacrifice) for the

sake of the well-being of the nation, so that the students too will cultivate a

similar ideal. Before they try to correct the students, the teachers should

first correct the.

October 25, 2005

The mind is subject to unsteadiness because of desires. Desires arise due to the

impressions received by the senses from outside. The only way to avoid these

external impressions is to turn the senses inwards. To effect this change in

the use of the senses, the power of discrimination derived from the intellect

should be employed. The intellect should be used to determine what impressions

should be kept out and what should be let in. The intellect should determine

what kind of company we should keep, what kind of food we should eat, what are

desirable practices and what are undesirable. It is by the right use of their

intellectual judgement that the ancient sages achieved spiritual eminence.

October 26, 2005

Man does not become fully human until he progresses on the spiritual path. Body,

mind and spirit - these three together constitute the man. An animal is

concerned primarily with looking after its bodily needs. Man is a superior

being, since he has been bestowed with a mind. Cultivation of the spirit will

elevate him to the Divine. The body, mind and spirit are intertwined and

interdependent. Mind and body have to subserve the spirit in achieving

awareness of the Divine Atma.

October 27, 2005

Some persons consider small defects in others as serious shortcomings and

criticize them, while they ignore even great drawbacks in themselves. The right

attitude is to magnify your own shortcomings, while considering other's lacunae

as being of no consequence. With this attitude, you will be able to realize the

Divine. Human love is selfish, while Divine love is spiritual and selfless; it

is pure love. The ancients described the Divine as eternal, immortal, pure and

unsullied. In order to experience the love of God, you should give up

petty-mindedness and selfishness and expand your love.

October 28, 2005

The body must be regarded as the basis for spiritual activity. The body is not

meant merely to be pampered and kept in comfort. Our mental abilities and

talents should not be used only for worldly achievements. Only by seeking Jnana

(spiritual wisdom) can man rise above the level of the animal. The animal is

concerned only with the present. Man alone can realize that the present is the

product of the past and that the future will be determined by what he does in

the present. Only if you act rightly in the present can the future be good.

This requires steadfastness and determination to adhere to the path of

righteousness whatever may be the difficulties.

October 29, 2005

Every being in the world has a name and form. But the Divinity within has no

name or form. The individual with name and form is filled with egoism and

possessiveness. These qualities are the cause of one's pleasure and pain,

happiness and sorrow. Hence, everyone must strive to curb these two tendencies.

The knowledge of the Supreme Self is associated with total freedom from Ahamkara

(egoism). Those who have no taint of ego in them are totally free from the

consequences of actions, regardless of the actions they perform.

October 30, 2005

Man suffers from numerous ills because he has not understood the purpose of

life. The first thing he has to realize is that God is one, by whatever name

and in whatever form the Divine is worshipped. The One chose to become the

many. The Vedas declare, "God is one; the wise hail Him by many names". It is

the imagination of the observers which accounts for the apparent multiplicity

of the Divine. The sun is only one, but its reflection appears in many vessels.

Likewise, God is present in the hearts of different beings in varied forms and

natures.

October 31, 2005

Is it the body that derives joy from looking at a thing of beauty, or is it the

Atma (soul)? What is it that relishes the good food that is consumed - the body

or the spirit? What is it that enjoys fragrance or is moved by beautiful music?

On enquiry, it will be found that it is the Atma that is the enjoyer, and not

the physical body. The body by itself is gross and incapable of experiencing

joy. It must be realized that the spirit transcends the mind and the intellect,

and pervades the entire cosmos. The spirit is the basis for the cognition of the

external world and experiencing the inner world.