The Message of Love

A person who has mastered and lives the principles of the Vedas might be honored as a pundit. Another might be praised for his brilliant writings in both prose and verse. But if such scholars have neither purity of consciousness nor elevating ideals, their capacities will result in more harm than good. They will promote neither happiness of the people nor peace in society. They will pass through life without the awareness of its sanctity or sublimity. The Lord, appreciating his innocence and steadfast faith, blessed the boy Dhruva, who lived in austerity to acquire God's grace. The Lord saved Prahlada from direct disasters planned by his own father, for the boy had surrendered to Him and placed unshakable trust in His mercy. The Lord showered grace on Kuchela, who suffered from agonizing poverty because he never once faltered in his devotion to Him. The Lord is the refuge of all who seek refuge, the savior of all who need to be saved. He is the embodiment of being-awareness-bliss (Sath-Chith-Ananda). He is now at Puttaparthi as the effulgent emperor over the region of truth, goodness and beauty.

Life sustained by food is short; life sustained by the Atman is eternal. Do not lay claim to long life, but instead to divine life. Do not pine for more years on earth, but for more virtues in the heart. The Buddha knew and made known to the world the truths of the world: Everything is grief; everything is empty; everything is brief; everything is polluted. So the wise man has to fulfill the duties cast upon him with discrimination, diligence, and detachment. Play the role, but keep your identity unaffected. Have your head in the divine forest ashram, unaffected by the aimlessly rushing world. But it is your duty, a duty you cannot escape, to engage yourself fully in your work, unconcerned with loss or gain, failure or success, slander or praise. The Gita (Bhagavad Gita - sacred scripture) instills this very lesson in you: Whoever does devotional practices with no thought other than Me, him I shall have with Me; I shall bear his burden now and forever. The Gita says, "Keeping Me ever in memory, engage yourself in the battle of life."

This 'Me' to which Krishna refers is not something outside you or extraneous to you. It is your own Divine Reality which you can cognize in the silence of your own meditation (dhyana), when you shut out of your awareness the distraction of the senses, the mind, and the ego. You can take refuge in the calm coolness of your heart where He has installed Himself as the charioteer. You must only engage yourself in work that is purifying, with an attitude that sanctifies. Most people do not know how to set about on this most rewarding adventure. They waste their lives in sorrow, wading through disappointment and despair, for they cling to something as theirs and treat something else as belonging to others. They grab and grieve and labor to acquire and lose. Desire multiplies desire, and man sinks deeper into discontent and distress. This behavior is really artificial; it does not conform to man's real nature, the prompting of his Atman, which is divine. In the universal, eternal sea of change, the Atman alone is above change.

In creation, in the objective world, no one article is like any other. No two human beings are similar in every respect; there is some twist or turn which distinguishes one from the rest. Each has his own peculiar experiences. Immense diversity prevails. Nor is an individual the same for any length of time. The infant changes into a child, then into a boy, an adolescent, an adult, and soon becomes middle-aged, old, decrepit and finally, senile. In one single day the individual is changed into a wakeful person, a dreamer, and a sleeping log! So man must seek refuge in the changeless, the universal cosmic soul (Paramatman), from which all variety emerges and into which it merges. Then only can he secure peace and contentment. The past is past; do not lose time looking back on the road you have traversed. Look forward, deciding to march on with confidence and courage. Take the first step now. Tomorrow may be too late.

Repeat to yourself the truth that the world is as much God as is heaven. There are no two distinct entities or categories called material and spiritual. All distinctions are apparent, not real. Sai has drawn the old and the young to Himself, and every one of them has Sai in his heart. The scriptures of different creeds--the Bible, the Koran, the Upanishads, the Zendavestha -- appear different, but their aim is the same: to establish the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God as the basis for the peace of mankind. No creed need put on airs of superiority as each is shaped by the compulsions of time and space, of language and levels of experience. You are all members of the Sai family, bound by the religion of love. Though ostensibly you profess to belong to different faiths, faith in Sai has removed the barriers in your minds. Love is God. Live in love.

Your Atman, which you mistake to be your body, your senses, your mind, your intellect, etc., can have no sorrow or joy. It has no death, no birth. It is eternal and unchanging. What you judge as joy or sorrow is only like a passing cloud which cannot affect the splendor of the sun or moon. Know that such emotions follow one another when the wheel of life turns round from moment to moment. The sea has water that cannot quench thirst, but it has also pearl and coral. You have to become toughened by the hammer strokes of joy and sorrow until you are unaffected by the vicissitudes of fortune.

Through love alone -- love acquired through spiritual discipline and shared with all as spiritual discipline -- can peace be attained, by the individual as well as by the nation. My Life is My Message and My Message is Love. That explains why you have gathered hither in hundreds of thousands.