Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

How can we acquire human values?

 

It is not enough if you repeat like a parrot, the five human values -

satya, Truth, dharma, Righteousness, s'anti, Peace, prema, love, and

ahimsa, Non­violence. It is not enough if you give lectures on human

values. It is absolutely useless if you read books on human values.

They have to be practised.

 

Just as ice is cold and fire is hot, a human being also should have

human values, in a natural way. If you limit these values to mere

lectures, they lose their value. An ounce, of practice is better than

a ton of precepts. Your looking at the map of India doesn't amount to

your going round the country, does it? So also, by reading or

lecturing on human values, you do not gain anything. If you sincerely

practise any one of them, the rest will follow. A tree has the dharma

of a tree. An animal has an animal dharma. Then should not a human

being follow human dharma?

 

The qualities expected of a human being are called `human values'. In

my opinion, if you develop prema all the other values will follow.

Love is the chief quality. Love is God, God is love. Love is life.

You have love no doubt, but it is narrow. It is limited to you and

your family, I and mine only. Love is not contraction as you have

now. It is expansion. Love is selflessness, self is lovelessness. Be

he a theist or an atheist, there is none in this world without love.

You can win God's grace only by love. It is the bond of love that

exists between you and God.

 

What had made Lord Rama pleased with that squirrel in the Ramayana?

 

What scholarship had the boatman Guha that pleased Rama?

 

What status and riches had Sabari to win the love of Rama?

 

What accomplishments had the Gopis of Brindavan to become so close

 

and intimate to Lord Krishna?

 

In all these instances, it was only pure love that made them enjoy

proximity to God. Love excels physical strength, intelligence, wealth

and authority. God looks for love in a devotee. Where there is love,

there is truth.

 

For instance, if your son, after playing in the field returns home

with his friend and asks you for a laddu, you may be tempted to say

that there is no stock of sweets at home. But, if your son comes home

all alone and asks for a sweet, you will immediately get into the

kitchen and bring the whole tin of sweets for him to eat as many as

he likes. See the difference! In the beginning, you denied a single

sweet and later you placed the whole tin of sweets. Why? It is the

love that you have for your son that made you speak the truth.

 

A word spoken with prema, love, is satya, truth. Any action that you

do with love is dharma. All the unjust and unrighteous deeds that are

happening today are only due to the absence of love. But an action

done with love is bound to be righteous. When there is love, you

enjoy peace. It is said that the face is the index of the mind. We

shall know if one is peaceful, disturbed, or agitated by looking at

one's face. Satya is spoken, dharma is done, while s'anti is

experienced. So, experience of love is peace. You will not be

affected by blame or criticism. Your peace will be of that order,

above negativity and accusation when it is supported by love. This is

the understanding you will have in due course, with your heart full

of love, and you will never hurt anybody in any manner. This is

ahimsa, non-violence. Understanding with love is non-violence.

 

So, there is nothing in this world that you cannot attain with love.

You will be an embodiment of all the human virtues and values once

you develop this divine universal love.