Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Swami! Because of wrong direction in our thinking, we feel dejected

restless and often fail in our attempts. Kindly show us the way out

of it.

 

Sai Baba: For all these agitations, disturbances, disappointments,

depressions and failures, your wrong way of thinking is responsible.

It is totally misdirected. Whatever may happen in life, you should

think, " This is good for me " . You should know that everything that

happens ultimately turns to your own good. This is called positive

thinking. Today you are full of negative thoughts. How do you expect

to know and experience God?

 

Your body, mind, intellect and the senses are completely negative,

but your spirit, conscience, or Atma is positive. God is your

conscience. Do you know why you are not able to realise and

experience God? It is entirely due to these negative thoughts and

attitudes. So, positive thinking and positive actions are very

essential for spiritual progress. Only then will you be peaceful,

blissful and successful.

 

Take your own example. It is absolutely because of positive thinking

that you are able to plan your academic programme and prepare

yourself accordingly, as also aim to secure a good rank in the

examinations and later a job. But planning to study whatever would

fetch you a very fat salary, help you to go abroad, earn more money

and marry a girl who would get you a large amount of dowry, is

negative thinking.

 

Turning to parents, educating you is absolutely positive but making a

business out of the education given to you is negative thinking. For

a doctor to treat a patient and cure is a positive approach, but if

the money is the criterion for the treatment given to the patient, it

is a negative approach. We should today fill our hearts with all

positive thoughts like divine feelings, divine sentiments and good

thoughts. Then only you will experience God who is sat-cit-ananda ,

the absolute positive. Therefore, it is necessary for you to take

everything as good for you. This is positive thinking. Come what may,

problems, difficulties, troubles, failures, losses, blame and what

not! You will know later that all this had happened for your own good.

 

A small story. There was a king who had a fancy one day to cut a

sugarcane all by himself to small pieces and eat it piece by piece.

While he was cutting, as ill luck would have it, he had cut his

finger. The minister who was by his side, remarked " Oh King! You have

cut your finger. This is good for you. " On hearing this remark; the

king grew wild, and thought, " What! How can this, my having lost my

finger be good? What would the minister say if I lose my head too? "

So the king ordered, out of fury and anger, that the minister be put

in prison. Then the minister said, " Oh King! This imprisonment is my

good fortune " .

 

After some time, the king went hunting all alone to a nearby forest.

He lost his way and was noticed by some tribals moving in that area.

They were actually in search of a man suitable to be sacrificed to

propitiate their deity at the end of their ritual. They caught hold

of the king and took him to their head priest. After checking the

king thoroughly, the head priest said, " We can't kill this king and

make an offering to our deity as one of his fingers is missing. A

handicapped or crippled body is unfit to be an offering. " Saying so,

he let the king go away from there.

 

On the way the king realised the truth of what the minister had

said, " This is good for you " when he had cut his finger. He summoned

the minister and said, " Oh Minister! How true is what you said! It

was just because of the fact that I had lost my finger that the

tribals set me free, unharmed. Now I have one doubt. You remarked

that it was good for you when I put you behind bars. How has this

imprisonment turned out to be good for you? " Then the minister

replied, '.Certainly! Had I not been kept in the jail, I would have

followed you. The tribals after leaving you, would have caught hold

of me, killed me and offered me to their deity in your place. So this

punishment has been my good fortune " . This is positive thinking and

attitude. Then happiness and success follow you.

 

akkaraku rani cuttamu

mrokkina varamiyani velpu

moharamuna tanekkina parani gurramu

grakkunna viduvangavalayu gadara sumati

 

This Telugu poem, means, `A relation who doesn't come to your help in

time of need, a God who doesn't grant you boons even after you pray,

a horse that doesn't run in the battlefield, will have to be given up

immediately, Oh! Wise one! Is it not so?'

 

Here, in this poem, first of all, know that it is addressed to a

Sumati, a wise one. It is true that you have to sever connections

with a relation who doesn't come to your aid in the hour of your

need, give up the horse that fails to run in the battlefield, and

forget a God who doesn't grant you rewards even after you pray. Here,

you should note one important point. Why don't you think this way?

Before you blame your relation that he is not of any help to you when

you need him most, why don't you think for a while whether you have

ever been of any help to your relation when he needed you? A horse

that doesn't gallop in the field must be given up, but why don't you

question your competence in horse riding? God who doesn't respond to

your prayers is not God. But do you deserve what you desire and pray

for? This poem is meant for that person, Sumati who thinks positively

before blaming anybody. This is how your thinking process should be.