Fwd: Sai Inspires - 25th December 2005 from Prashanti Nilayam

[Guest guest]

Roman" color="#800080">- Divine Discourse, 25th Dec 1992. Help Ever - Hurt

Never - Baba How Must We Respond? Loving Sai Ram and

greetings from Prashanti Nilayam. Today, hundreds of millions of people around

the world would be celebrating Christmas. One wonders how many of them would

take a minute off to ponder over what Christmas really means. Instead, most

likely, over 90% of those celebrating Christmas would be preoccupied with

matters that hardly relate to Christ and his eternal message of love and

compassion. Time there was hundreds of years ago when the world was not

supposed to be so advanced; but then, and people had all the time to think

about the teachings of Christ. Few realise that if today there are over a

billion Christians all over the world, it was because many in those distant

days were drawn to the Son of God by the message he preached and lived by,

before he made the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of humanity. People were

drawn then to the message of Christ, because it is the universal message of

Pure Love and Compassion. It is a message with an eternal appeal that can touch

Hearts even in the darkest of times; and it is that very same message that is

drawing millions to Swami, including for the celebration of Christmas here.

No, Christmas is not about going on shopping spree, not about sending cards in

thousands, not about marketing, not about opening attractively wrapped gifts

and not about grand Christmas dinners or parties. It is all about Love and

Compassion.

Preoccupied as we are these days with matters relating the material world, it

is not easy to follow the message of Christ, or for that matter that of Swami.

Indeed, even in earlier times it was not easy, which is why Christ once

exclaimed in desperation, “Why call ye me Lord, when thou doest not follow what

I say?” Swami too has expressed similar disappointment via the words,

“Aacharanam ledu,” meaning people do not put into practice His teachings.

Once a speaker asked some devotees whom he was addressing, “How come we force

Swami to express dissatisfaction in this manner? If we really love Swami as we

all claim, then why does such a serious lapse arise?” There was then a lot of

discussion until one person hit the nail on the head. He said, “May be, perhaps

unknown to ourselves, deep in our Heart we are not convinced that following

Swami’s teachings would do us any good. Possibly, we ask, ‘What’s there in it

for me?’ and brush aside the teachings.” This was an honest answer. The

speaker then narrated the famous parable of the Good Samaritan first told by

Jesus. Just to recall, there was a traveller going along a lonely desert road

who was

waylaid by robbers who not only took away everything this unfortunate traveller

had but also beat him up and left him badly wounded. There he was lying

helpless and in pain when along came a Levite. He saw the man and just kept on

going without bothering even to enquire whether any help was needed. After some

time came a priest but he was no better; he too couldn’t care less about the

hapless, wounded wayfarer. And then came a man from Samaria who stopped,

applied balm to the wounds, bandaged them, placed the injured man on his

donkey, and took him to an inn in a village. There he arranged for the victim

of robbery to be accommodated and fed. And next day when he left, the Samarian

left some money with the innkeeper to take care of the expenses of the injured

man. That roughly is the parable narrated by Jesus.

The speaker then asked his audience: “Why do you think the Levite and the

priest walked away without attending to the wounded and dispossessed man?” The

audience had no difficulty in giving the answer. They all said, “These two

people did not offer help because there was nothing in it for them.” The

speaker said that is right and then asked, “In that case, what was there in it

for the man from Samaria? What did he see that the other two who went before him

didn’t?” After some hesitation, one member of the audience said, “Probably this

man from Samaria felt he would feel happy inside if he extended help.” That

answer is indeed correct. The first two passers by sought an answer to the

question “What’s there in it for me?” from the Head. The Head saw no benefit

and that is why those two went their way without bothering to help. The man

from Samaria also asked the same question but addressed it to his Heart. And

the Heart said, “If you show love and compassion to the wounded man and help

him, you will experience Bliss or Ananda.” The man accepted the response and

did exactly what his Heart asked him

to. That really is the central point about the message that Christ gave then

and Swami is teaching us now. In the world that we live in, we are a constant

witness to all the things that happen there, especially the suffering of

hundreds of millions. How must we respond? If the question is addressed to the

Head, it would say, “Don’t bother.” When people do not bother they would turn

to merrymaking and wasting money on unnecessary luxuries, money that could be

used for alleviating pain and misery. Indeed, such people might, in the pursuit

of their ambitions even inflict pain and cause hurt. However, if one listens to

the Heart, one would do all one can to reach out to those in distress. Even if

one is not able to

physically help, one can at least pray to the Lord. Incidentally, it is

interesting how often the Heart is portrayed along with pictures of Christ.

On this sacred day, let us who are blessed by the Lord to enjoy comfortable

circumstances in life, take a moment off to think of hundreds of millions who

are suffering from the aftermath of various natural disasters, who are in the

clutches of poverty, and are facing a miserable end to their lives caused by

diseases that could have been prevented if humanity had more feeling for the

suffering. Instead of dreaming of shopping sprees and wild parties, let us

ruminate on the teachings of Christ and His Father who is now very much with

us. Let us spend some time reading

the Discourses given by Swami at Christmas time year after year, to help us

place the message of Christ in a modern context. Merry Christmas and 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, click

here. Visit us at www.radiosai.org to know more about RadioSai and our e-Journal

"Heart 2 Heart". sairam sairam sairam sairam sairam

HELP EVER - HURT NEVER

- BABA -

sairam sairam sairam sairam sairam

Photos Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, whatever.

Attachment: (application/octet-stream) [not stored]

Attachment: (application/octet-stream) [not stored]