GEMS FROM THE LORD


GEMS   FROM   THE   LORD

Goodness, compassion and tolerance: through these three paths, one can see the divinity in oneself and in others. Softness of heart is condemned by people today as weakness, cowardice and want of intelligence. The heart has to be hardened, they say, against pity and charity. But that way lies war, destruction and downfall. Love confers lasting happiness and peace. Sharing can reduce grief and multiply joy. Man is born to share, to serve, to give and not to grab. When you have faith in God as a precious truth in the altar of your heart, you will welcome, with equal alacrity, the blows and blossoms of fortune.

The Ramayana is a guide-book, a sacred text, an inspiring scripture, for every man in all lands, whatever his creed or condition might be. It imparts poise, balance, equanimity, inner strength and peace. Peace is the best treasure without which power, authority, fame and fortune are all dry and burdensome. Thyagaraja has sung that there can be no happiness without inner peace.

Why is it that the world reveres Rama and revolts at Ravana? Rama is not the uncle's son or Ravana the step-mother's child! It is the kinship of the spirit, innate goodness,responding lovingly, adoringly to the goodness in Rama; and reacting revoltingly to the wickedness of Ravana. It is not enough, nor is it essential that you should repeat the name of Rama loudly; respect it in the fullness of love and admiration. If you have no spring of love in you, dig into your heart with external instruments like Puja, Stotra, etc. and it will start to flow.

Vibhishana, Ravana's own brother, chastised him for his willfulness and lust and urged him to save himself, his kingdom and his kith and kin by restoring Sita unharmed to her Lord. When Vibhishana went over to Rama, Rama knew that he had a pure heart and that he could not survive the poisonous atmosphere of Lanka. So He took him and saved him. The Lord likes to be called Aartha-traana-paarayana - more than any other name, for He is most happy when He rescues those in agony.

You talk glibly of Rama Rajya, but how can it be established, if you do not emulate Rama? He was Vignahavaan Dharmah, the very embodiment of Dharma. He never deviated from it. Dasaratha means one who is master of the ten senses, the five Karmendriyas and the five Jnanedriyas; that is to say the successful Sadhaka. Such a person can have the holy progeny of the four Purusharthas- Dharma(Rama), Artha( Lakshmana), Kama(Bharatha) and Moksha(Satrughna). Become a Dasaratha and save that holy progeny as a gift from God.

Hanuman succeeded in coordinating his thought, word and act. Therefore he had the unique distinction of being great in physical strength, mental stability and virtuous character. He shines as an invaluable gem among the personalities of the Ramayana. He was also a great scholar, who had mastered, of all things, the six schools of grammar. He knew the four Vedas and the six Sastras. The Gita says that a scholar is one who sees the same Divine force motivating everyone. Pandithaha Samadarshinaha. Hanuman was a good example of this outlook.

The vanaras while building the bridge across the ocean, carried huge boulders on their heads, repeating Rama-nama all the while; and that made the rocks weigh less. It is said that they even wrote the Name on the stones and that made them float. Each time they handled or lifted a stone, they sang Rama nama in unison and so they were a happy lot, doing Puja not work, which is unpleasant. Take the Name and make your work light: That is my advice to you.

Insist on your seeking and remaining in good company, satsangha. Being in the midst of such spiritual heroes, you can fight against evil with a greater chance of success. Once when Garuda the sworn enemy of snakes went to Kailas, he saw the snakes that Siva wore around His neck, His arms, His waist, His Feet. The snakes were safe now and they hissed with their puffed hoods at the celestial bird which could do them no harm since they were in such Divine Company. Garuda said " Well! Glide down from the body and I shall kill every one of you.!" That is the value of the Sath one has reached. Sath Sangha is valuable, for it is like keeping a pot of water inside a tank of water. There will not be any loss through evaporation.

Pride is one of the worst sins in the spiritual field. If you feel that you are a bhakta of Hare, He will hare (destroy , in Telugu) you. Remember saranagathi should be like the attitude of Lakshmana. Rama said "Take Sita and leave her in the forest" Implicit obedience! There is no other way. That is Lakshmana. That is Saranagathi; the rest are deserving only of Sarangathi, the arrow of Rama.

Hanuman was ordered to discover the whereabouts of Sita and he implicitly without question obeyed and succeeded. He did not calculate the dangers of the journey and hesitate; and he did not feel proud that he was chosen for the high adventure. He listened; he understood; he obeyed; and he won. The name Ramadhuta, messenger and servant of Rama that he earned thereby, has made him immortal. You must earn that name, Sai Rama Dutha. Have fortitude and self control; use good and sweet words; and examine each act of yours on the touch-stone of My preference.

The toughest fiber is anger. It is the stickiest dirt. When you get angry, you forget mother, father and teacher; you descend to the lowest depths. You lose all discrimination in the excitement; even Hanuman set fire to the whole of Lanka when he was incensed by the Rakshasas who set fire to the tip of his tail; and he lost sight of the fact that Sita was in the Ashoka Vana. It was only after he had exulted in achievement for a little while that he remembered it and then he started condemning himself for his anger.

Do not ask God for anything. Let him deal with you as He wills. Did Jatayu ask that Rama should come to him and perform his last rites? Did Shabari plead with Rama? Earn the qualifications - holiness, purity, faith, and universal love; then He will approach you on foot, to console, comfort and save. If you have purity of heart and mastery over the senses, His Grace is your right.

Ego plays all sorts of tricks, in order to get unholy pleasure. During the construction of the bridge to Lanka to take the army across, Hanuman heaved a boulder across the raging waves of the sea, as part of the bridge! it floated. Rama heaved another; it sank. Hanuman's ego was tickled, naturally. He laughed in derision; at that very moment his boulder sank! And, the boulder, that Rama had thrown, rose from the bottom of the sea and floated! Hanuman's ego was pricked to nothing. That was the purpose for which Rama had willed that His boulder should sink.

The Lord will be the guide of whoever installs Him as his Sarathi. He will not consider that position inferior. He is the Sanathana Sarathi, come to be the Sarathi of all. He is the Lord for all who seek a Master, a support. The Atma is the Master in every one; and Krishna is the universal Atma personified.

The genuine Bharathiya vision is to life into a pilgrimage towards the God resident in oneself; a steady march along the straight path to Bliss. There is no such steadiness now. Fancy and Fantasy rule the mind of man. You desire one thing in the morning; at noon you change over to something else . That desire will not persist until evening. If your desire is fulfilled, you praise God and parade your devotion. But, if it does not prevail, you throw God overboard and parade your disbelief.

Detachment is a plant of slow growth. If you pluck the tender plant to look for the pods, you will be disappointed. So, too, long constant practice alone is rewarded by the peace that God offers. Grace is acquired by surrender, as Krishna has declared in the Gita.

When the Gita directs you to give up all Dharma (Set codes of morality) it does not ask you to give up Karma, and, when you do it for God, through God and by God, the Dharma of it does not matter; it has to be acceptable; and it is bound to benefit you. The statement is not an invitation to licentiousness or complete inactivity. It is a call for dedication and surrender to the highest in man, namely God.

Perform all acts with as much love as you would offer God. In Truth, you eat for the satisfaction of the "I" in you and dress up to please the self-same "I". The husband loves the wife for the sake of the "I". And who is this "I," that is persistent in everyone? It is God himself. "Eswarah Sarva Bhoothanam" says the Gita: The Lord resides in the heart of every being. He is the Atman in every being. He is the Atman in everyone, the Paramatman.

Ponder over your sthithi (present condition), gathi (direction of movement), sakthi (capabilities) and mathi (inclination). Then, enter upon the path of sadhana step by step, so that you faster every day, every hour, every minute. Arjuna became entitled to the Gita Upadesh from the Lord Himself, because he evinced the Vishada, the Vairagya the Saranagathi and the Ekagratha essential to assimilate the great message. When the yearning for liberation has become intense, beyond expression, man can set aside all social conventions, worldly norms and codes of conduct that do not subserve that high purpose.

The Gita says that, if you give up all Dharma, and take refuge in Him, then he will save you from sin and wipe your tears. Giving up Dharma does not mean that you can bid farewell to virtue and righteous action.; it means, you have to give up egoism that you are the doer. Be confirmed in the faith that He is the doer of every deed, that is the genuine 'giving up'

Krishna was known to all as Almighty - All - Knowing, All - Encompassing and All - fulfilling. Yet the enthusiasm to do seva prompted Him to approach Dharmaraja, the eldest of the Pandava brothers, on the eve of the magnificent Rajasuya Yaga he had planned to perform and offered to take up seva of any kind. He suggested that He be given the task of cleaning the dining hall after the guests had partaken of the feast! Krishna insisted on outer cleanliness and inner cleansing. Clean clothes and clean minds are an ideal combination.

During the battle of Kurukshetra, which climaxed as the Mahabharata story, Krishna served as the driver of the chariot of Arjuna throughout the day on the field and till dusk caused the adjournment of the fight. He led the horses to the river, gave them a refreshing bath and applied healing balms to the wounds suffered by them during the fierce fray. He mended the reins and the harness and rendered the chariot battle-worthy for another day. The Lord sets the example for the devotees to follow. He teaches that service done to any living being is offered to Him and is accepted by Him most joyfully. Service rendered to cattle, to beasts and to men is laudable sadhana.

The world today is in deep distress because the common man and his leaders are all distracted by lower desires and motives, which require only the lower skills and meaner impulses of man. This is what I call 'devaluation.' Though man is inherently divine, he lives only at the animal level. Very few live even in the native human level.

Bhishma, for example, has to be revered and accepted as an inspiration even more potent than Rama so far as homage to the father is concerned. In order to cater to the carnal cravings which he would have ordinarily condemned, he denied himself gladly, spontaneously, without demur and for the entire period of his life, both wedded life and royal status. The Vedic injunction Pithr Devobhava was honored by him in the fullest manner.

This created Universe has two aspects, one is impermanence (Anithyam). The second is unhappiness(Asukham). In the Gita, Krishna has said, "Anithya, Asukha Lokam Imam Prapya Bhajaseva Maam". Nothing in the world can give happiness that is true and everlasting. Mistaking the world as 'All' and forgetting the Atman, which alone is eternal and the only refuge, is the greatest folly of man today; man is pinning all his hopes on the slippery work and is madly running after amassing and hoarding wealth. Of course material needs are to be taken care of but within limits and not at the cost of spiritual values. Money and mansions are not at the only wealth. Hoard the wealth of the spirit. Character is wealth; Good conduct is wealth; and spiritual wisdom is wealth.

Egoism is the most dangerous illusion that has to be exploded and destroyed. Bhima had it, but when he could not lift and lay aside the tail of a monkey, who was really Anjaneya himself, that the bubble was exploded. Arjuna had it, one day, after the battle; when Krishna brought the chariot back to camp, he wanted that, like all charioteers, Krishna should get down first; The Master must get down later, after the charioteer opens the door for him. Krishna refused and insisted that Arjuna should alight before He Himself should. At last Krishna won. Arjuna got down and then, as soon as Krishna left His seat and touched the ground, the chariot went up in flames. If only Krishna got down first, the fact was the various fire arrows that had the power of burning the chariot would hit the target, but, due to the presence of Krishna, their igniferous powers could not manifest themselves. After knowing this, Arjuna was humbled and his egoism had a powerful shock. He realized that every action of Krishna was full of significance.

The Gita advises Karmasanyasa, that is to say, karma without attachment to the fruit thereof. There are Karmas which have to be done as duties, related to the status in samsara, and, if these are done in the proper spirit, they will not bind at all. Do all karma as actors in a play, keeping your identity separate and not attaching yourself too much to your role. Remember that the whole thing is just a play and the Lord has assigned you a part; act well your part; there all duty ends. He has designed the play and He enjoys it.

It is when are in a desperate situation that you call upon the Lord, forgetting your pride and your egoism. The Pandavas were so full of misery in a worldly sense that they always had an attitude of prayer. If I had given you all the comforts and opportunities, you would not have come to Puttaparthi. Trouble is the bait with which the fish is handled out of the water. Kunti asked that Krishna should continue giving her and her sons all kinds of misery so that He may grant them His Grace continuously

The Mahabharata for example, is basically the story of the five vital airs of man (the Pancha Pranas) overcoming the hundred obstacles in the path of upward progress. The eldest of the five Pandava brothers is Dharmaraja (Morality, Righteousness); he is ably supported by Bhima (Physical strength devoted to Divine Service and charged with devotion), Arjuna (steady pure faith in God) and Nakula and Sahadeva, who represent steadfastness and equanimity. When these five are exiled, the Hastinapura (body) is inundated with Adharma (unrighteousness)

In the Manasa - Sarovar (the deep, placid mind lake) of every man, there lurks a poisonous cobra, with six hoods: lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hate, infesting the air and destroying all who are near it. The name of the Lord, when it dives into the depths, forces it to come up to the surface so that it may be destroyed. So, allow the Divine in you, the Krishna, Lord of the mind, let him trample on the hissing hoods and take out the vicious viper; let it vomit the venom and become sathvic and sweet.

Like all Avatars, Krishna announced His Advent to the world, bit by bit, step by step, testing how far the Reality will be accepted by the masses. The signs and miracles were intended then as now, to proclaim the Avatar.

The mystery and splendor of God can be only grasped by a pure mind and a clear vision. That is why the Lord granted a new eye to Arjuna in order that he might not be confounded by His Glory. A resolution adopted by the mind is like a stone thrown into a Sarovar or lake. It produces ripples that affect the entire face and unsettles equanimity. A good resolution or Sankalpa sets up a series of such thoughts, each contributing its quota to the process of purification and strengthening.

The One is comprehensive of all this. So, it has no wants, no desires and no activity to realize anything. Sri Krishna tells Arjuna: "Name Partha asthi Karthavyam, Thrishu Lokeshu Kinchava Partha" (There is nothing I have to do in any of the three worlds). He has willed the world as his sport, He has laid down that every deed must have its consequence. He is the dispenser of the consequences but is not involved in the deeds.

One can also be rid of Maya if one can discard the three Gunas from one's makeup. The Sathyaguna too has to be transcended, why? the Gita directs that even the eagerness to be liberated is a bond. One is fundamentally free. Bondage is only an illusion. So the desire to make close the bond is the result of ignorance. Krishna says," Arjuna, become free from the three Gunas." In truth, the word Guna means the rope, for all the three Gunas bind the Jiva with the rope of desire. Liberation means liberation from elusive attachment or Moha, "Mohakshaya - decline in the desire caused by attachment to sensory pleasure."

Consider for a moment how long worldly triumphs last. They are but the play of the scintillating name and form of the Divine, which is the core of every being. Earn the vision that sees the Divine inherent in all. We are not troubled when something is good; only when something is bad. This is because the goodness in us is natural. In our evil aberration, we are worried and alarmed when we slide into wrong or pain or sorrow. This is because nature plans us to be right, to be happy and ever in a state of joy. It is a pity that man has lost his understanding of this basic Truth.

Dhyana is not mere sitting erect and being silent. Nor is it the absence of any movement. It is the merging of all your thoughts and feelings to God. Without the mind becoming dissolved in God, Dhyana cannot succeed. The Gita declares genuine Dhyana as Ananyaschinthayanthomaam Ye Janah Paryapasthi (Those persons who adore me without any other thought or feeling). Krishna has assured such persons that He would Himself carry their burden and be by their side, guiding and guarding them. Persons adept in this Dhyana, are very rare; most people go through the external exercises only. So they are unable to win Grace.

Life is a song, sing it. That is what Krishna taught through his life. Arjuna heard that song in the battlefield where tensions were at their highest and the fate of millions was to be decided by the sword. Krishna sang the Gita for Arjuna to listen. Gita means 'Song' and He sang because He was Ananda, wherever He might be - in Gokulam, on the banks of the Yamuna or at Kurukshetra between the warring armies.

Why does He attract all to His Presence? To plough the heart, prepare it for receiving the shower of Grace, to grow the seeds of Love, weed it of all evil thoughts which smother the crops of joy and to enable it to gather the harvest of wisdom. That wisdom finds its fulfillment in Krishna Himself, for Krishna also means pure essence, the Supreme Principle, the Sat-Chit-Ananda

When Dharmaraja, the eldest of the five Pandavas, came to know after the death of Karna, which they effected successfully, that Karna was his brother, his agony knew no bounds; he was struck disconsolate and was torn by despair. If only he had known the truth, all that grief would have been avoided. So, too, until you know that all are altars where the Name of God is installed, all are moved and motivated by the Grace of the self same God, you are afflicted by hate and pride; Once you know it and experience it, you are full of Love and reverence to all.

The question on the battle-field was not who was the kin of whom, but who was right and who was wrong; fight for justice, fight for truth, fight for these as a kshatriya is duty bound, and leave the result to the dispenser of all. Krishna told Arjuna "I am surprised that you should weep so, for you are Gudakesha, the conqueror of sleep, of ignorance. You do not kill; don't be conceited at all that, nor do 'they' die; 'They' have many more things to do; and in the real, they are deathless" "The sentence of Death has already been pronounced on their bodies by Me and you have but to carry out My orders" Krishna said.

When the righteous Pandavas were harassed by wicked Kauravas, the beauteous Krishna appeared and saved them. The Lord can never deign violence and bloodshed. Love is His Instrument, Non-violence His Message. He achieves the correction of evil-minded through education and example. But, it may be asked, why did Kurukshetra happen? It was a surgical operation and therefore cannot be described as an act of violence. The Surgeon saves life through the beneficial use of His Knife.

Consider the name Krishna that the Avathar bore; What a significant Name? Krishna is derived from the root krish which means

To Attract
To plough and cultivate
The Divine Principle beyond time, space and Causation.

Krishna like all Avathars attracts not only seekers, saints and sages, but the simple, the innocent and the good. He draws also the curious, the critics the skeptics and those who suffer from atheism. He draws them towards Himself by the irresistible charm of His person, by his invincible Look, His Voice, His Flute, His counsel and His undaunted heroism! He is ever in a state of Bliss, spreading harmony, melody and beauty around Him; He sings everywhere in the peaceful pasture lands of Brindavan and in the blood soaked battlefield of Kurukshetra.

Bhishma was a bhakta and by winning the Lord's Grace he was clothed with more Majesty and splendor than any early emperor. What majesty have these scepter holders? They cannot claim to have inner peace, inner joy, they know not the joy of sharing love with all. Bhishma surrendered, to the Lord when He challenged Him with the sudarshana that is to say, when He offers su (good) darshana (vision) one must be wise enough to surrender, give up all, that is what Bhishma did.

Arjuna exclaimed Krishna as the Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient God, when the foe was defeated day after day. But when his son Abhimanyu was killed in the conflict, he raved in the grief that Krishna had not guided him properly and guarded him efficiently. His mind wavered with every wind as fortune. To many the mind is the master of the intellect also. One must be vigilant and preserve the impartiality of instrument called Reason of Intellect. Clarify reason, then it will reveal God everywhere, even in you. Once you accept God as the core of the Universe and yourself have that faith strong and steady.

Fill every moment with energy, enthusiasm and effort. The epics teach you how to succeed in this. The Mahabharata describes how when every other of the hundred Kauravas died, the eldest Duryodhana was challenged by Bhima to meet him in a duel. When he at last fell to the ground, Bhima struck his head with his foot in order to add insult to injury. Duryodhana's pride was hurt. A Kshatriya such as he could not pass that insult by. He retorted even when he was dying "Do not exult that you have done some heroic act by trampling on my head! In a few seconds dogs and vultures will be doing that act. It does not require a hero to plant his foot on a dying man. You dared not do this when I was capable of hitting back, you coward!" That kind of awareness of one's potentialities and quick response to all happenings must be present in you too. Heroism gushed out even when he was passing away!

The Krishna whose advent you should celebrate is not the cowherd boy who charmed with His flute, but the Krishna the indefinable Divine principle that is born in the navel of the body (Mathura) as the product of Divine Energy (Devaki) that is then transported to the Mouth (Gokula) and fostered by the Tongue (Yasoda) as its source of sweetness. Krishna is the visualization of the Atma that the repetition of the Name grants, the vision was gained by Yasoda, you must foster that Krishna on your tongue. When He dances on it, the poison of the tongue will be ejected completely, without harming anyone as happened when as a child He danced on the hoods of the serpent Kaliya.

Purity of motive is the best guarantee that you will have Peace. An uneasy conscience is a tormenting compassion. Righteous action will have no bad effects, to disturb your sleep or health.


If there is righteousness in the heart,
 there will be beauty in character:
If there is beauty in character, 
 there will be harmony in the  home;
When there is harmony in the house, 
 there will be order in the nation;
When there is order in the nation,
 there will be peace in the World.

So, be righteous; avoid all prejudices against others on the basis of caste, creed, color, mode of worship, status, or degree of affluence. Do not look down or up on any one; look upon all as Divine as you really are.

All faiths are inter related and mutually indebted to each other for the principles they teach and the disciplines they recommend. The Vedic religion was the first in time. Buddhism which appeared about 2500 years ago, was its son; Christianity, which was influenced much by the Orient was its grand-son. And Islam, which has the prophets of Christianity as its base, was the great grandson. All have love as the fundamental discipline of the mind, in order to chasten it and merge man with the Divine.

Vinayaka is called the child of two mothers Gowri and Ganga. You are the pet children of four mothers, each of you; Sathya, Dharma Shanthi and Prema. Do not ridicule them by your act. Honor them and be grateful to them. Do not claim 'Anyaya' (Injustice), 'Akrama' (Indiscipline), 'Asathya' (Falsehood), and 'Anachara' (Evil Behavior) as your mothers. Instead expand your heart, taking in all humanity into the circle of your kin, even the birds, beasts, worms, and insects, trees, and plants. The Vedic Prayer asks that the aspirants heart may be expanded 'Brhathe Koromi'-I make myself vast! The vastest is 'Brahmam'; from which comes the same root, 'brh': to enlarge.

Love must be manifested as service or seva. Seva must take the form of food for the hungry, solace for the forlorn, consolation of the sick and the suffering. Jesus was himself out in such seva. The heart full of compassion is the temple of God. Jesus pleaded at the sight of the poor. Jesus is worshipped but His teachings are neglected. Sai is being worshipped, but His teachings are neglected. Everywhere, pomp, pageantry, hollow exhibitionism and lectures, lectures, lectures! No activity, no Love, no seva. Heroes while lecturing are zeros while putting into practice. Develop compassion. Live in Love. Be Good, Do Good, and See Good. This is the way to God.

The Divine is a wine that would intoxicate you. It is produced by the nectar that the name of the Lord is saturated in. Taste it and you forget everything else; you are transformed. Man is they say, a monkey that has lost its tail; Well, he must lose many more attributes of the monkey before he is entitled to call himself man. He must dedicate his thought, word and deed to God, and surrender to His Will. Then only is this animal entitled to become a man in whom the Divine is enshrined.

The body is the ball filled with the air of Divinity; it is kicked in play by the six players on the side (the six foes: lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hate) and six on the other (the six friends: truth, right, peace, love, compassion and fortitude); the goal posts are on each side, and if the ball is hit so that it passes through them, they achieve Dharmavidya (Moral Attainment) and victory. Or else, their kick results in an "out"! Learn to speak what you feel, act what you speak, do not allow them to be at cross-purposes. Man, with the feelings of a demon fuming with hate, engages in fighting, holds Peace Conferences and, prides himself on his plans for peace! Transform the heart into a tabernacle of peace; then conferences to deceive oneself and others become unnecessary. What can mere talk achieve?

There are some ignorant persons who laugh at Bhajans and other acts of worship and consider them a waste of valuable time. Those persons might laugh at your pouring bags of paddy seeds on a slushy field and condemn that act too as a act of valuable food material. But you know that, for every bag of paddy seed, Mother Earth will give back, in a few weeks, grain tenfold or even twentyfold. Time spent in contemplation of God or adoration of the Divine is indeed well spent, for it rewards you with a rich harvest of mental peace and courage.

The mind plays many tricks with you, the chief of which is to foster the ego and hide the Prompter and the Power within. You must have heard of an accountant in the Court of the King of Death, Chitragupta, by name. He maintains a register of the good and the bad deeds done by each living being, and, on death, he brings the book to the Court and strikes the balance between debit and credit. Yama, the king, then meets out the punishment that can expiate and educate. This Chitragupta has his office in the mind of man, all the time awake and alert. The word means secret picture; what he does is to picture all the secrets from promptings that blossom into activity; He notes the warning-signals as well as the occasions when those signals are ignored or wantonly disregarded. You must see that the warning of the Divine against the merely human or the bestial inclination, is heeded.

The grace of God cannot be won through the gymnastics of reason, the contortions of Yoga or the denials of asceticism. Love alone can win it; Love that needs no requital; Love that knows no bargaining. Love that is paid gladly as a tribute to the all Loving; and Love that is unwavering. Love alone can overcome obstacles, however many and mighty. There is no strength more effective than purity, no bliss more satisfying than Love, no joy more restoring than Bhakti and no triumph more praiseworthy than surrender.

Him means Himsa (violence) and du means dura (distant), so that HINDU means a person who is devoid of violence, who loves and sympathizes, who helps and serves - not one who hides and hits, harms and draws blood. The same sky is over everyone's head; the same earth supports everyone's feet; the same air enters everyone's lungs! The same God brought all forth, brings up all and brings about the end of this earthly career. Why then this inhuman role of foe and fanatic; of fight and feud?

I am the embodiment of Love; Love is My instrument. There is no creature without Love; The lowest loves itself, at least. And its "self is God". So, There are no atheists, although some might dislike Him or refuse Him, as malarial patients dislike sweets or diabetic patients refuse to have anything to do with sweet! Those who preen themselves as atheists will one day, when their illness is gone, relish God and revere Him.

Struggle to realize the Atma, to visualize God; even failure in this struggle is nobler than success in other worldly attempts. The buffalo has horns; the elephant has tusks, but what a difference? To live in the body, with the body, for the body is the life of a worm; to live in the body, with God, for God is good for the life of man. The dull, activity hating Thamasic persons have ego and their Love is limited to their kith and kin. The Rajasic, active, passionate persons seek to earn power and prestige, and love those who will contribute to these. But the Sathwic, the pure, the good and the equanimity-filled love all as embodiments of God and engage themselves in humble service.

There are three types of approaches to the Lord; the eagle type, which swoops down on the target with a greedy swiftness and suddenness which by its very impact, fails to secure the object coveted; The monkey type, which flits hither and thither, from one another, unable to decide which is tasty; and the ant type which moves steadily, though slowly towards the object which it has decided is desirable. The ant does not hit the fruit hard and make it fall away; It does not pluck all the fruits it seeks; It appropriates just as much as it can assimilate and no more. Do not fritter away the time allotted to you for sojourning on earth in foolish foppery and fanciful foibles which always keep you outdoors. When are you able to walk indoors into the warmth and quiet of your own interior? Retire into solitude and silence now and then; experience the joy derivable only from them.

Rama, Krishna, Sai Baba appear different because of the dress that each has donned, but it is the self same Entity, believe Me. Do not be misled into error and loss. The time will soon come when this huge building and even vaster ones will be too small for the gatherings of those who are called to the place. The sky itself will have to be the roof of the auditorium of the future. I will have to forego the car and even the aeroplane when I move from place to place, for the crowds pressing around them will be too huge; I will have to move across the sky; yes that too will happen, believe Me

See all as Narayana swarupa and worship all with Prema. Even my Nature can be understood by you only when you wear the glass of Holiness. Holy things can only be cognised only by the Holy seeker. You get what you search for; You see what your eyes crave for. The doctor is found where patients gather; the surgeon stays in the operation ward; so too, the Lord is ever with the suffering and struggling. Whenever people cry out in agony " Oh God," there God will be.

You very often condemn the mind mind as a monkey; but, take it from Me, it is far worse. The monkey leaps from one branch to another; but the mind leaps from the heights of the Himalayas to the depths of the sea, from today to tens of years ago. Tame it by the process of Namasmarana. Make it, as Ramdas did, into a Bhadrachala, a stable and steady mountain. That is the task I assign to you. Make your heart an Ayodhya by means of Rama Nama. Ayodhya means a city that can never lie captured by force. That is your real nature: Ayodhya; Forget this; and you are lost. Install Rama in your heart; and then no outer force can harm you.

Things are not so important; the transcendental truth of the things is of value. You must visualize the spiritual in the material, the gold in the jewels, the Divine in the diversity of character and conduct and seek to know the Atma. All are equal in birth and death. Differences arise only during the interval. The Emperor and the beggar are both born naked; they sleep equally silently; they bow out without even leaving their new address. Then how can their reality be different? There is no doubt on this score. All are basically the same.

Listen to Me. When you wake up, feel that you are entering the stage to play the role assigned to you by the Lord; pray that you may act it well and earn His approbation. At night, when you retire to sleep, feel that you are entering the green room after the scene, but with the dress of your role on; for perhaps the role is not yet over and you have not yet been permitted to take the dress off. Perhaps you have to make another entrance the next morning. Do not worry about that. Place yourself fully at His disposal; He Knows; He has written the play and He knows how it will end and how it will go on. Yours is but to act and retire.

When the mind is unattached to the ups and downs of life, but is able to maintain equanimity under all circumstances, then even physical health can be assured. The mental firmament must be like the sky, which bears no mark of the passage through it of birds or planes or clouds. Illness is caused more by malnutrition of the mind than of the body. Doctors speak of vitamin deficiency; I will call it deficiency of vitamin G, and I will recommend the repetition of the Name of God, with accompanying contemplation of the Glory and Grace of God. That is Vitamin G. That is the medicine; regulated life and habits are two thirds of the treatment, while medicine is just one third only.

Carry on your highest duty to yourselves - follow the four F's: Follow the Master; Face the Devil; Fight to the End and Finish the Game. Then you win my Love in full measure. Love is my highest miracle. Love can make you gather the affection of all mankind. Love will not tolerate any selfish aim or approach, Love is God. Live in Love. Then all is right; all can be well. Expand your heart so that in can encompass all. Do not narrow it down into an instrument of restricted Love.

When you seek to learn swimming, you will have to enter the water and struggle with the strokes. When Bhasma (vibhuti) is given, doubt haunts some people whether Swami is wishing that the recipient should be a Saivite! It is a symbol of the indestructible basic substance which every being is. All things become ash; but ash remains ash, however much you may burn it. It is also a sign of renunciation, of sacrifice and of Jnana, which burns all Karma - consequently into ineffective ash. It is a sign of Ishwara and I apply it on your brow, to remind you that you too are Divine. It is a valuable 'Upadesa' about your identity. It also reminds you that the body is liable any moment to be reduced into a handful of ash. Ash is an lesson in detachment and renunciation.

The tongue is the armor of the heart; it guards one's life. Loud talk, long talk, wild talk, and talk full of anger and hate: all these affect the health of man. They breed anger and hate in others; they wound; they excite; they enrage; they, estrange. why is silence said to be golden? The silent man has no enemies, although he may not have friends. He has the leisure and the chance to delve within himself and examine his own faults and failings. He has no more inclination to seek them (fault) in others. if your foot slips, you sustain a fracture; If your tongue slips, you fracture some one's faith or joy. That fracture can never be set right; That wound will fester for ever. Therefore, use your tongue with great care. The softer you talk, the less you talk and the sweeter you talk, the better for you and the World.

Birth is the consequence of Kama (desire; lust); Death is the consequence of Kaala ( Time, the lapse of Time). The God of Desire (Kama) was reduced to ashes by Shiva; The God of Time is Kaala or Yama. He was subdued by sin. So, one has to surrender to Siva (God) if one has to escape the consequences of these two frightfully fatal forces. If between Kama and Kaala, you take refuge in Rama, then you can escape the rigor. For Rama is the Atma who has no Kama and is unaffected by kaala.

The river of human life meanders along, through many a valley, leaps over many a cliff, loses itself in many a marsh and seeks to empty itself in the ocean of Divine Grace; though, what happens is that it falls into the undrinkable expanse of salt. The flood flows from the heights to the depths; only the flames of fire do ever rise from the depths to the heights. That is why we speak of Jnanagni, the fire of Wisdom of Realization. Man suffers because he has developed hunger as vast as the sky, with a throat as narrow as a needle. his throat must become as vast as the earth; His heart must blossom wide through Shanthi and Sahana; That is through equanimity and fortitude. Then the desire of man for full lasting undiluted Ananda can be attained.

It is to persuade you to engage yourself in Namasmarana that I am Myself concluding My discourses with a few Namavalis which I sing. An officer of the Indian Civil Service has to write on the slate, A, B, C,D and pronounce those letters in order to teach his children the alphabet. When you find him doing so, you do not infer that he is himself learning the alphabet, do you? Therefore, do not be surprised if I sing Bhajan songs; I am but initiating you into this most efficacious Sadhana. Strengthen yourself, purify yourself and educate yourself by this Namasankeertan. Do it loudly and in company. Let those who join you listen and imbibe the nectar of the Name.

When you call out in sincerity, the response will certainly come. Give up all low desires and call from the anguished heart. Do not pray from the lips, as you do now, from the puja room which is but a corner of the kitchen. You worship the Lord with an eye on the dishes or cooking on the oven, with a nose inhaling hungrily the smells of hot curries. Your thoughts of God are vitiated by Vishavasana - attachment to sensory objects. There is a vast gap between what you say and what you do; and between what you are capable of and what you accomplish.

Once man is free from undue attachment to the body and its appurtenances, he is liberated from the pulls of joy, grief, good, bad, pleasure, pain etc. He is firmly established in equanimity, fortitude and undisturbed balance. There man discovers that the world is one in God; that all is Joy, Love and Bliss. He realizes that he himself is all this apparent World, that all the multifarious manifestations are fantasies of the Divine Will, which is his own Reality. This expansion of one's individuality to cover the ends of the Universe is the highest leap of man. It gives supreme Ananda, an experience for which saints and sages spent years of prayer and asceticism.

Man is enslaved by money. He lives a superficial, hollow, artificial life. This is indeed a great pity. Man should seek only as much money as is most essential for his living. The quantity of riches one must earn can be compared to the shoes one wears; if too small, they cause pain; if too big, they are a hindrance to physical and mental comfort. When we have more, it breeds pride, sloth, and contempt for others. In pursuit of money, man descends to the level of the beast. Money is the nature of manure. Piled up in one place, it pollutes the air. Spread it wide; scatter it over fields; it rewards you with bumper harvest. So too, when money is spent in all four quarters for promoting good works, it yields contentment and happiness in plenty.

Move forward towards the light and the shadow falls behind you. Move away from it and you follow your own shadow. Go every moment one step nearer to the Lord and then, maya, the shadow with fall back and not delude you at all. Be steady; be resolved. Do not commit a fault or take a false step and then repeat! Have the Thaapam ( the deliberation, the decision, the discipline) first; That is better than Paschaat Thaapam ( regret for the mistake made).

Give something Divine if you want the Divine. Prema, Shanthi, Dharma and Sathya are Divine. Do not try to get it for a flower that fades, a fruit that rots, a leaf that dries and water that evaporates. There are some who write and speak as if they have known Me, all that is to be known of Me. I can only say this: they can never know Me and My nature, even if they are born and reborn a thousand times. To know Me one has to be like Me, rise to this height. Can ants discover the depth of the Ocean?

In this Kali Age, The wicked have to be reformed and reconstructed, through Love and Compassion. That is why this Avatar has come unarmed. It has come with the message of Love. The only weapon which can transform the vile and the vicious is the Name of the Lord uttered with Love. The Name is redolent with Divine Glory. So when it is turned over in the mind, it transmutes into an instrument for liberation from delusion.

Three disciplines are essential, to become aware of the Divinity in all and in the Avathar; no activity should be taken up with individual aggrandizement in view; intellect and emotion must be directed to the revelation of the resident of the Heart, Atma; and every act should be done sincerely, with Love, with no yearning for acquiring personal profit, fame or benefit. Above all, listen to the voice of God within. As soon as one contemplates a wrong act, the voice warns, protests, and advises giving up. It pictures the shame that has to be suffered, the punishment that has to be faced and the disgrace it entails.

If God is implanted in the heart, you will see God everywhere, even in the objective world. Sarvam Brahmamayam, is a fact. Resolve this day to engage only in virtuous deeds, good thoughts, and good company. Let your mind dwell on elevating thoughts. Do not waste a single moment of your talking time in idle gossip or vain boasting or idle recreations.

The journey into the inner consciousness to calm the storms that rage is more important than the journey to moon or Mars. The latter may be more spectacular, but the former is more beneficial. Life without goodness, good thoughts, good actions, and good words is like a sky in the night without the moon or stars. It is like a wheel without hub or spokes! No one can push a boulder away while standing on it; you cannot be free from anxiety, while all the entrances through which it sneaks in are open. Stop catering to the senses and feeding the desires that haunt you.

When Jesus was emerging as the supreme principle of Divinity, he communicated some news to his followers. The statement of Christ is simple. " He Who sent me among you will come again". And he pointed to a lamb. The lamb is merely a symbol -- a sign. It stands for the voice - BA BA. The announcement was "The advent of BABA". "He will wear a robe of red, a blooded robe. He will be short, with a crown (of hair)." The lamb is a sign and symbol of Love. Christ did not declare that he will come again, He said," He who made me will come again." That BABA is the Baba; and the Sai, the short curly - hair - crowned, red robed Baba has come.

Human lives are now passing on and on, filth over filth, bent, broken, diseased,distressed, and disheartened. To enrich their lives and make human heritage worthwhile, I have come, I am evincing all this enthusiasm to teach you the prayer attitude to seva, for Love expresses itself as seva, Love grows through seva, and Love is begun in the womb of seva. And God is Love. The Avathar is a child to the children, a boy to the boys, a man among men, a woman among women, so that the Avathar's message might reach each heart and receive enthusiastic response as Ananda. It is the compassion of the Avathar that prompts His every action.

The nature we have around us and with us is the vesture of God. we have evidence of His beauty, goodness, wisdom, power, all around us, where ever we turn our eyes. But the art of recognizing Him is strange to us and so we deny Him and live on in the darkness. We have all around us, in the atmosphere, the music emanating from all the broadcasting stations of the world, but they do not assail your ear at any time. You are not aware of any station; but, if you have a receiver and if you tune it to the correct wave-length, you can hear the matter broadcast from any station; if you fail tune it correctly, you will get instead of news, only nuisance! So too, the Divine is everywhere above, around, below and beside; near as well as far. For cognizing it, you require not a Yantra (machine) but a Mantra (mystical formula potent with a psychological undertone). Concentration of Dhyana is the fixing of the exact location in the band. Love is the correct tuning in. Realizing the reality and the Bliss it confers is the happy clear listening.

See God in every being and then true sneha will blossom. This type of true sneha will come only when you follow the advice of Krishna. "Adveshta sarva bhoothanam maitrah karuna evacha nirmamo nirahamkaraah Sama Duhka Sukha Kshami". "He who has no trace of hatred towards any creature, who is friendly, and compassionate towards all, who is free from the bondage of 'I' and "mine", who takes pain and pleasure as equally welcome and who is forbearing in spite of provocation". Grow these qualities in you, for they are the signs of true sneha, it is only when you are proceeding along the Godward journey along the nine stages of Bhakti that you can attain this Divine ideal of true friendship.

Mohammed, who sought to establish the primacy of the One Formless Absolute had a large share of persecution, defamation and privation. Jesus, who attempted to rebuild mankind on the basis of Love, was crucified by little men who feared that their tiny tower of hate and greed will be toppled by his teaching. Harishchandra, who had resolved never to waver from Truth, was subjected to ordeal after ordeal, each more terrifying than the previous one. Those who seek to know God must steel themselves to bear insult, injury and Torture, with a smile.

I am showing you by My example. You must fill every moment with useful beneficial activity. You talk among yourselves, "O Swami is having his rest hour; Swami is sleeping", but I have never craved for a minute's rest or sleep or relief. Shall I tell you what time I feel restful, relieved and content? When I know that you are all earning Supreme Bliss through detachment and spiritual discipline; not until then. I am ever engaged in some activity or the other for your benefit. Things I could get done, I do not entrust to others; I do them myself, so that they may learn self-reliance and get experience thereby.

Yama or the God of death is described as dragging his victims to his abode by means of the rope or Paasa. Well, he has no rope factory there, for supplying him with the rope he needs. You manufacture the rope yourself and have it ready around your neck; he only has to take hold of the rope and pull you along! It is a three stranded rope, the strands being Ahamkaaram (Egoism); Vishayavasana (sense-attachment); and Kama (desire).

You must speak soft and sweet words to everyone. Do you like the voice of a crow? No, you drive the crow away, when it starts to crow; its speech is harsh, it is too loud for your ears. You must have heard the Koel, the cuckoo, haven't you? That bird looks very much like the crow; it grows in the nest of the crow, with the baby crows, it is fed by the mother crow, along with her own kids. But, no one will throw a stone at a 'Koel'; everyone likes to hear its sweet voice. Speak soft and sweet; then everyone will like you.

The title Sathyam Sivam Sundaram is full of meaning. It speaks of He, imminent in every one of you. Sathyam is the basic reality of you all. That is why you resent being called a liar. The real 'you' is innocent, you will not accept an imputation that is false. The real 'you' is joy, happiness, and auspiciousness. It is not Savam, but Sivam, it is Subham, Nithyam, and Anandam. How can you bear being called ugly? The Atma has got entangled in the body which it does not like; it is weighed down by shame, when you identify it with the body and attribute to it the weaknesses and deficiencies of that physical vehicle.

Have no thorn of hate in your mind, develop Prema towards all. Desire is a storm; greed is a whirlpool; pride is a precipice. Attachment is an avalanche, egoism is a volcano. Keep these things away, so that you can do Japa or Dhyana; they do not disturb the equanimity. Let Love be enthroned in your heart. Then there will be sunshine and cool breeze and the gurgling waters of contentment feeding the roots of faith.

Learn a lesson from the tree. When it is heavy with fruits, it does not raise its head aloft with pride. It bends low, stoops, as if it does not take any credit for its accomplishment and as if it helps you pluck to pluck the fruit. Learn a lesson from the birds. They feed those who cannot fly far. The bird relieves the itch of the buffalo by scratching it with its beak; they help and serve each other, with no thought of reward. How much more alert must man be, then, with his superior skills and faculties? Service is the best cure for egoism.

I would advise you to dwell always on one Name of God, One personification of one of His innumerable attributes of Glory. Then there is the expansion of your Love, the removal of hate and envy from your mental composition, seeing the God whom you adore in every other person intently as you see Him in yourself. Then you become the Embodiment of Love, Peace and Joy.

Remove the weight from your head by transferring all burdens to the Lord, leave everything to His will and His Law. Feed your mind with sweet and wholesome food: Sathsanga, Satpravatana and Sarveswara Chinta - then you are full of joy. I am Anandaswarupa; come and take Ananda from Me and, returning to your avocations, dwell on that Ananda and be full of Shanthi

The greatest single cause for darkness in the world today is envy. When one is happy and contented, others envy him and strive to ruin his peace of mind. When any one is acclaimed as great, malice moves others to invent calumny, in order to tarnish his reputations. This is the way of the world. There is in life the tragedy of ignorance and selfishness. They force man to take the wrong path and suffer calamity.

A strong will is the best tonic. The will becomes strong when you know that you are a child of immortality or a person who has earned the Grace of the Lord. Medicine and hospitalization are for these who hesitate and argue about this doctor being more efficient than the other and this drug being more powerful than the rest. For these who rely on the Supreme Doctor, His Name is the drug that cures.

You can call me on the phone, but I will not be available for all those who do not have the sincere and steady yearning of the Lord. For those who say "No! You're not my Lord", I say "No." For those who say, " Yes", I too echo "Yes". If I am available in your heart, I will be available over the phone. But, remember, I have my own special Postal and Telephone Systems. They operate from the heart straight to the heart. There are rules and regulations for the operations of the systems, which the Sastras declare. You can find them there. I am glad that the devotees have acquired this new convenience at Prashanthi Nilayam.

Truth can reflect itself in your intelligence only when it is cleaned by Thapas. Thapas means all acts undertaken with higher motives and all acts indicating yearning for the spirit; repenting for past blunders; staunch determination to adhere to virtue; self control; and unyielding adherence to equanimity in the face of success or failure. Thaapam means heat, burning intensity and earnestness of endeavor. It is Thapas that fosters renunciation and discipline.

The Rama and Krishna Avatars performed the mission of restoring Dharma and fostering virtuous living, besides punishing the wicked and teaching the world that vice will not succeed. Man is an amalgamation of humanity, animality and Divinity. It is a tragedy if he cannot get rid of the animality; and it is a greater tragedy if he cannot cultivate his Divinity. Contemplation of the Rama and Krishna Avathars and their leelas and mahimas is the surest method of cultivating the Divine in man.

God has four qualities and it is only when you cultivate them that you can understand Him. They are: Prema (Love), Soundarya (Beauty), Madhurya (Sweetness) and Shoba (Splendor). The development of Prema is enough to add into you the other three. When you are full of Prema for the Divine 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 splendor indescribable.

My task is not merely to cure and console and remove individual misery. It is something far more important. The important task of the mango tree is to produce mango fruit. The leaves, the branches, and the trunk of the tree are useful in their own way, no doubt, but the main aim is the fruit. So also from the plantain tree, the fruit is the main gain. The leaves and the edible core of the stem are all incidental. So too, the removal of misery and distress is incidental to My Mission. My main task is the re-establishment of Veda and Shastra in the heart of Bharatavarsha and the revival of knowledge about them in the people. This task will succeed.

Narada once asked Krishna the secret of the attraction His flute play had on the cowherds of Brindavan. " Do they run to You or do You run to them?", he queried. "Among us, there is neither I nor they; how can a picture be separated from the cloth on which it is painted? I am imprinted on their hearts so inseparably and so inextricably" Krishna replied. Have God imprinted in your hearts; be ever so inextricably established in Him. That is my message to you.

This Sai has come in order to achieve the supreme task of uniting the entire mankind, as one family through the band of brotherhood, of affirming and illumining the Atmic reality of each being in order to reveal the Divine which is the basis upon which the entire cosmos rests and of instructing all to recognize the common Divine heritage which binds man to man, so man can rid himself of the animal and rise to the Divine which is the goal.

Do not get elated at the riches, status, authority, and intelligence, which have been given to you on trust, so that you may benefit others. They are all signs of His Grace, opportunities for service and symbols of responsibility. Never seek to exult over other's faults; deal sympathetically with errors and mistakes of others; hear only good things about them; and do not give an ear to scandals.

The snake moves in curves, not in a straight line; man, too, when he is following the senses has to move in a crooked path. He has greater poison in him than the snake; his venom is to be found in his eye, his tongue, his hands, his mind, his heart, and his thoughts - whereas the cobra has it only in its fangs. The cobra raises its hoods and sways in joy when it hears music; so too man, when he realizes the stage of Nirvikalpa, steady, unchanging establishment in the ultimate Reality, dances in heavenly Bliss.

Does thou know why you have been given eyes? To see whatever can be seen? No! No! To fill the eyes with the vision of God who resides on Mount Kailas. We have to cast our looks at sacred sights. We must visualize in everyone only the good and the Godly. That is the purpose for which God has equipped us with eyes. He has not gifted them to us to observe and judge others, to follow people into the bazaar or to see unsightly films.

God is the source of all Love; Love the world as the vesture of God, no more and no less. Through Love, you can merge in the ocean of Love. Love cures pettiness, hate and grief. Love loosens bonds; it saves man from the torments of birth and death. Love binds all hearts in a soft silken symphony. Seen through the eyes of Love, all beings are beautiful; all deeds are dedicated; and all thoughts are innocent. The world is one vast kin.

God is all powerful; God is everywhere; God is all-knowing. To adore such a formidable limitless principle, man spends a few minutes out of 24 hours and uses a minute idol or picture! It is indeed ridiculous; it is practically futile. Adore Him so long as you have breath and so long as you are conscious. Have no other though than God, have no other aim than knowing His command; no other activity than translating that command into action. That is what is meant by surrender. Surrender yourself unto Him.

There are three types of persons: those, who confess their own faults and mention the excellence of others, are the highest type; those, who highlight their own excellence and decry the faults of others are worse; those, who parade their own faults as excellence and deride the excellence found in others as faults, are the worst. The last type is nowadays most rampant.

God has no will or want; He does not confer or withhold; He is the eternal witness. To put it in the language that you can understand: He is like the postman, who is not concerned with the contents of the letters that he hands over to the addressees; one letter might communicate victory; another defeat; and you receive what you have worked for. Do good and have good done in return; be bad and accept the bad that comes back to you. That is the law; and there is really no help (or) hindrance.

The relief and the joy you give to the sick and the sad reach me, for I am in their hearts and I am the One they call out for. God has no need for your service; does He suffer from pain in the legs, or ache in the stomach? Try to serve the Godly; be dasanudasas, the servants of the servants of the Lord. The service of man is the only means by which you can serve God.

All who come embodied are Avathars, that is to say, advents of the Divine, manifestations of God. What, then, is the special feature of Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Christ? Why do you celebrate their birthdays with such reverential enthusiasm? The specialty is this: they are aware; you are unaware of the Atma which is the Truth. Awareness confers Grace, Glory, Majesty, Might and Splendor. Awareness confers liberation from bonds and from time, space, causation and sleep, dream and wakefulness. Avathars are ever alert and alight.

For Namasmarana, no expense is involved; no materials are needed; There is no special place or time to be provided. No qualification of scholarship or caste or sex has to be proved. When a bit of iron is rubbed to and fro on a slab of stone, heat is generated, only, the rubbing has to be vigorous and continuous. When you do so at intervals and with poor pressure, the iron will not get hot. So, too, in order to get sufficient heat to melt the soft heart of the Lord, rub the name 'Ram', 'Ram', 'Ram' vigorously and unremittingly. Then, the Lord will shower His Grace.

This is the best time to tell you something about the authenticity of this Advent. I only wish to communicate the Truth. There are many who cannot bear or tolerate the splendor that I am manifesting, the Divinity that is expressed in every act, the wonders and amazing happenings that are the result of Grace; these people label these as acts of mesmerism or miracles or feats of magic! They hope to bring these down in the estimation of the people. Let me tell you this ; mine is no mesmerism or miracle or magic. Mine is genuine DIVINE POWER.

Life sustained by food is short; life sustained by the Atma is eternal. Do not lay claim to long life; but 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 Truth. Everything is grief. Everything is empty. Everything is brief. Everything is polluted. So the wise man has to do the duties cast upon him with discrimination, diligence and detachment. Play the role but keep your identity unaffected.

In order to escape being tossed about on the waves of joy and grief, one should cultivate unconcern (upeksha), an attitude of welcoming either, as a sign of Grace. Sri Ramakrishna said that if you must avoid the sticky fluid in the jack-fruit from contacting your fingers when you peel it, you have to apply a few drops of oil to them. So too, said he, "If you do not want the world and its reactions to stick to you, have a few drops of unconcern applied on your mind."

The foundation for real peace is, according to the Vedas, the quality of Maithree. Maithree means amicability, friendship, compassion, and kindness. It can also be taken to mean, "My Three" that is to say, my word, deed and thought shall be in accordance with words, thought and deed; that is to say; we shall speak, think and act together, without friction or faction, in an atmosphere of love and understanding. That is what is wanted in the world today: My three.

All men are Mine; so the whole World has to be saved from the consequences of ignorance or limited knowledge. I will get all My people near Me, for they are Mine, and I am theirs. Then, I will start teaching and training them, until they become entirely ego-free. For the last 25 years, it has all been sweetness, kindness, soft persuasion; hereafter, it will be different. I will drag them, on the table and operate. That is to say, I have no anger of hate. I have only Love. It is Love that prompts Me to save them and to open their eyes, before they get deeper into the morass.

Man alone can rise through effort to higher stages of spiritual evolution. No other animal can do so. Animal trainers of the Circus can train a tiger to perform various tricks, but they cannot change his nature. They cannot make it live on grass and completely deprive it of meat. But man is different. His nature can be changed by means of his own disciplined effort. He can control, by his will, the evil thoughts and ideas that arise in his mind. This is why birth as a human being is considered a rare gift.

Faith in God will instill faith in themselves and in others and the World will be happier thereby. The Americans might walk on the moon, or the Russians picnic on the planet Mars, but they have both to return to Earth, which is their common home. One can claim genuine victory only when one has reached not the dead satellite, but the living star, not the Chandra, but Ramachandra, the Lord who rules over the inner satellites, the inner planets, the inner motives and aspirations.

Life is a jungle, where there is a great deal of dry wood which harbors worms and insects. No one cleans the floor of the forest or cuts away the undergrowth of bush and bramble. To wade through the thorns and the leech-ridden floor of the jungle, one has to wear boots. So too, one has to pass through the jungle of life, without harming oneself.

Today the student world is tossed in confusion; not only in confusion but in downright insanity. They wear white clothing; but the hearts are still dark.

  Heads are full of evil thoughts;
Ears are open for scandal-tales;
Eyes delight in peeping unseen;
Minds crave for wicked plots;
Reason pursues plan to cheat.
When Vidya perceives these in man,
It will not stay a moment there.

When this is the condition, how can one earn vidya? Of course, man's present situation and status are determined by his acts and thoughts in the past.

Samskriti the word for culture and civilization is derived from the word samskara, which means the dual process of removing the dust and dirt of vice, and planting the virtues of Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi and Prema. Samskara is also the name for certain obligatory rites of initiation and purification prescribed by the Vedas for the spiritual upliftment of man. Their number is forty-eight in all, but they could be reduced to ten and if needed, even to one; the final fulfilling one, of recognizing one's identity with Madhava or Siva, or Brahman. Nara is but Narayana seen through the limitations of primal ignorance.

An iron box is essential to keep safe precious stones; so to, the body is essential to keep safe the precious gift of virtue, faith, love and discrimination. The parents gave it and so they have to be respected by speech, action and behavior. How can you expect the Heavenly Father to respond to your prayers if you do not respond to the demands of the earthly Father? The first step in Dharma is gratitude; the first duty of the child is reverence to the parents. When the first step is absent, ascent is impossible.

If a school has poor discipline and if its students are led away by self-seekers into the wilderness, the fault lies on the parents, elders and the Committee of Management. The Committee often is only a 'Come-for-Tea' affair.

However superfine the paper, however artistic the envelope and however poetic the composition of the letter, it will not reach the addressee by post, when it lacks the 50 paise stamp! So too the trappings, vestures, shawls, moles and rosaries are ineffective; they cannot reach the addressee - God. what will take their prayers to the addressee is the 50 paise stamp: dedication or Bhakti.

I want each one of you to grow into a strong, steady and straight person. Your eyes should not seek evil sights; your ears should not seek evil tales; your tongue should not seek evil speech; your hands should not seek evil acts; your minds should not seek evil thoughts. Be pure and be full of Love. Help those who are in a worse condition and serve those who need your help.

God appears in human form; He promotes pasture of cattle and agriculture, in order that the food must sustain the Head and render it intelligent and clear enough to realize God. The body has to be nourished for the sake of the Head, so that 'Jnana' can be attained and Liberation gained. Food-Head-God: this is the chain of events.

When you live in the world of desire, you must be prepared for both joy and grief. Invite the minister, bhoga, and you must be prepared for the visit along with him of his private secretary, roga! Invite on the other hand, the minister thyaga, or his colleague Yoga; and you will be happy to receive their private secretary - boga, who plays a minor role in the presence of his Master.

Bhakti is not to be calculated on the basis of the institutions one has started or helped, the temples that one has built or renovated, the donations one has given away; nor does it depend on the number of times one has written the Name of the Lord or on the time and energy one has spent in the worship of the Lord. These are not vital at all; no, not even secondary. Bhakti is Prema, unsullied by any tinge of desire for the benefit that flows from it or the fruit of consequence of that Love.

God is as eager to save you as your are eager to be saved; He is Prema, He is Karuna, for all who flounder on the road. He is called Bhakta - Abhista - Prada (He who grants the desires of the devotees). You say that I laugh within Myself, that I roll my hair on My fingers and draw them right over My face, but let me say why? It is a sign of My Ananda at the success of Bhaktas in capturing My heart.

The human body has been secured as a reward for many lives of meritorious activity. Being valued as a boat which can help us cross the ocean of change Samsara it has to be tended with grateful reverence. The Bhagavad Gita calls the body Kshetra, which means 'a field': one can sow holiness or sin and gather a harvest commensurate with the particular quality. Choose the crop that you need before you sow the seeds.

The Vedavids marked three stages in the life of man and assigned one aspect of God to preside over each stage. The first, where man is deep in activity of some sort or other in karma, is presided over by Vasu. The second, under the protection of Rudra, is filled with reverential worship of the God in all, discovered through the impact of Love. The third is the stage of Gnana, the supreme Wisdom, presided over by the source of illumination, Aditya or the Sun.

The bird, in the physical cage wherein man is imprisoned, is always, from the moment of birth to the moment of death, chirping SOHAM declaring Jiva and Deva are ONE. It is this affirmation that is the justification for the gift of life. When that chirp does not emanate from the breath, the body is a corpse: SAVAM! When it manifests, illumines and fills the cage with the 'Divine Fragrance', it is a tabernacle: SIVAM! Identify yourselves with the Manthra the bird chirps and the breath repeats.

The world is a furnace and a factory where man has to shape his destiny by his honest, untiring efforts. He who takes up this challenge and spends his allotted years and the skill and the intelligence with which he is endowed, in purposeful activity, is really entitled to the status of a Karma Yogi.

Duty is God; Work is Worship; and there is a dictum: "Heads in the Forest; Hands in Society". Do deeds that are holy and beneficial, untarnished by ego and the greed to benefit. Start on the sacred pilgrimage to the Divine Goal and make every minute of your life holy and purposeful. Then, surely, this earth, your field of work, will be transformed into a Karmakshetra and a Dharmakshetra.

A devotee once lamented, saying, "Oh God! you have forgotten me!" This is never possible. It is the devotee who forgets that he is the child of God, that God is his never-failing friend and guide. God is all knowledge, all power, and all mercy. Faith in God has to be constant and firm in the face of every challenge by fate or fortune.

A person might appear poor, distressed, and depressed, to ordinary mortals; he might not have the exterior demonstration of devotion. But, God would be ever installed in his heart, guiding and guarding him. He might be doing all acts as acts of worship to the God residing in his heart.

We, who are crossing the ocean of samsara (the chain of birth and death), need to cultivate the art of swimming through Bhagavath Chinthana (Meditation of God). However learned we may be, if we do not have this training and cultivation, we are bound to sink. Life is a boat which enables us to cross the ocean of samsara with the aid of meditation on God.

When you spend your hours in thoughts about God, you are also free from evil ways. You will not be tempted to abuse others or harm them in any way. You live in Love, accepting all the events as His gifts. Homes such as yours are, really speaking, Heavens on earth; the Joy that bubbles in your hearts is the symbol of Vaikuntha; the earnestness and care that you evince in your work is the sign of Kailas the abode of Siva. Hearts dedicated to these ideals are indeed 'golden'.

We cannot describe God in the vocabulary learnt upon the Earth. We have to experience the Bliss of realizing Him as the core of our being. Man is endowed with a sense of wonder and awe, the sense which make him, either a participant (Karma Yoga), an inquirer into the mystery (Gnana Yoga) or a devout adorer (Bhakthi Yoga).

One does not have to search for spiritual power, going around the world and spending a lot of money. Be in your own house, develop it in yourself, such spiritual power in you! You do not have to run for it here and there. God is not external; God is not outside you; God is inside you. You are not a man, your are God yourself. You are not one person, but three; the one you think you are (physical); the one others think your are (mental); and the one you really are. Do not be under the delusion that God is somewhere and you have to search for Him; God is in you.

Parents and teachers can earn My Grace only by becoming good and worthy examples to their sons and daughters, or their wards and students. You claim to have devotion to Me, but you must examine and discover whether I am pleased with you. You must examine yourselves every moment, whether you are observing the discipline I have laid down and the program of service I have marked out. That is the way to earn My Love. Love others and serve them; then, you can win My Love.

You will see the day when the Chitravathi sands alone can accommodate the gatherings that assemble here from all parts of the world; when the sky alone can provide them a roof for them all. Many hesitate to believe that things will improve, that life for all will be happy and full of joy, that the Golden Age will ever recur. Let me assure you that this Dharmaswarupa has not come in vain; It will succeed in averting the crisis that has come upon Humanity.

When the Dharma of the Age is laid aside
To establish it anew, though loving means;
When the world is polluted by conflict and confusion,
To restore the path of virtue and peace;
When good men caught in cruel coils wail,
To save them from pain and shame;
When sacred texts are not grasped alright,
To proclaim the message they teach mankind;
To relieve the earth of the burden of vice,
To fulfill the promise made in the Tretha Age;
Achuta has incarnated on this earth;
Vasudeva, Srihari has come into the world.

God alone is eternal; man is a momentary flash, a tiny wavelet that rises and falls, So, fill yourselves with vast thoughts, magnificent ideas, indefinable splendor, by reciting the names of God, names that describe Him to your receptive consciousness. That is the main discipline for this Age.

Remembering the Lord by His Name is enough to save man. The Lord is Anandamaya; He is also Ananda. That Ananda is to be tasted through the Name. It is Sat-Chit-Ananda you may doubt whether such a small raft such as Rama, or Sai or Krishna can take you across the boundless sea of samsara. People cross vast oceans on a tiny raft; they are able to walk through dark jungles with a tiny lamp in their hands. The name, even the Pranava which is smaller, has vast potentialities. The raft need not be as big as the sea.

Do not fret against the rules and regulations which the organization imposes on you; they are laid down for your own good. Regulation is the very essence of creation. The oceans observe their limits. Wind and fire respect their limits and bounds. The human body has to maintain its warmth at 98.4F in order to be healthy; the heart has to beat at definite number of times per minute. How, then can the organization escape the prescription of certain rules and regulations?

The same Divine compassion that blessed Dharma; saved Gajendra; restored Kuchela; and stood by Prahlada, has come to earth as the refuge of the refugeless; as the Lord of peace, harmony and righteousness; as the Lord of all the worlds; as the Sath-Chit-Anandamurthi; and as the Puttaparthi Sathya Sai Sath-Chakravarthi - The King of Kings.

The Avathar is Atmashakthi that has put on the raiment of Kriyasakthi and Yogasakthi. Generally Avathar or the process of incarnation is described as a 'coming down' from a higher status to a lower one. But, no! When the baby in the cradle weeps, wails and clamors for help, the mother stoops and takes it up in her arms; her stoop is not to be described 'coming down'. If you earn the necessary credentials, the Incarnation will come and save you. If, on the other hand, you multiply your demerits and descend lower and lower, how can you be saved?

Sai only reflects your mind. He has no prejudices or preference. He is a mirror wherein you can see yourselves as you really are. In order to correct mistakes and remove your faults, I have sometimes to use harsh words, but you may be rest assured that My sole aim is to turn you to better ways. I have no anger in Me. It is the inner compassion which takes the other form of anger.

You think Sai Baba is comfortably sleeping in the mandir. Do you know where I find happiness? I am happy when I am with you. That is the reason why I declare "My Life is My Message". I am consistently engaged in some work or other at all hours. I do not get attached to anything nor do I need to detach myself from anything. I am ever in full Ananda.

Egoism is a thorny bush which, when planted and fostered in one's heart, makes one pay the penalty. Egoism makes enemies of fast friends and rains many good causes and projects, for it does not allow two good men to work together. Grief follows it like a shadow. Where there is no ego - joy, peace, courage, cooperation and love flourish. When man is aware that the same Divine consciousness that motivates him is equally motivating all others, then Love ousts the ego and takes charge of man's activities words and thoughts.

Overcome by inner foes, how can man succeed in overwhelming the outer foes?
Burdened with sloth and dullness, how can he achieve wisdom?
Prompted by passion, how can he cultivate devotion?
Balance and equanimity alone can confer peace and harmony.

Nara and Narayana are like iron and magnet. God, by his very nature, attracts man near, for in man there is the Divine. When the magnet fails to attract the iron piece, we sometimes conclude that the magnet has lost its power. The real fact is, however, that the piece of iron is too thickly covered by rust and dust. Thus man (the iron) does not realize his own defect, but rushes to blame God (the magnet) and even to deny Him.

Revere Jnana as you revere your father; adore love as you adore your mother; move fondly with Dharma, as if it is your own brother; confide in daya, as if it is your dearest friend; have shaantham as your better half; treat sahana, fortitude as if it were your own beloved son. These are your genuine kith and kin. Move with them; do not forsake them.

Hold all your property and wealth in trust for the Lord who gave them to you; even your family, you must treat as a sacred trust, as persons given to you by the Lord to love, foster and guide. Thus, you must elevate your attachment into worship and make it an instrument for spiritual progress.

You come to Puttaparthi, secure a picture, and taking it home, worshipping it every day or every Thursday; but that is simply sathkarma - good activity. They will not take you far. You must also develop sathguna, virtues, good habits, good attitudes, good characteristics and a good character. Otherwise our life is a chain of pluses and minuses, one canceling the other out, totaling up to a mere zero.

Devotion towards God goes ill with hatred towards fellow men. Fellow-men and the world must be seen ever in the mirror of Sath-Chit-Ananda. Kinship based on this recognition will alone last. That is the Sai kinship. When you deepen that kinship, the true presence, the constant presence of Sathya Sai will always be yours. Do not be led away by your fancies into the jungle of words and feelings. Be firm, true to your inner-most nature.

There are many trusts operating in this country and in others beyond the seas. I wish to emphasize that the Sathya Sai Trusts have to shine forth among them all by their special characteristics. They must be based on mutual trust and cooperation built on actual experience of the Oneness of all. There is no room here for egoistic poses, compulsory tactics, greed for power, recrimination and jealousy.

God too is a reality, ever present in us and in every being; but we miss Him, as we miss the movement of the earth. We have to infer God through proofs and inferences of His Providence, His Grace, His Majesty and His Glory, just as we infer the movements of the earth, the moon and the stars by watching the sky, the seasons and the precise procession of day and night. We cannot describe God in the vocabulary learnt on Earth.

Sivoham, Sivoham - was the exclamation that rose from the souls that knew the Truth in a flash of illumination, after long years of cleansing the mind through the process of Tapas. 'I am Siva-Siva am I' - Though called by many names and recognized in many forms, the Divine Principle is one, without a second. It is 'Sivam' and is latent in each being, including Man.

The serpent can be tamed and its poison fangs removed, when music from the Nagaswaram pipe is played and when it is fascinated by that sweet melody. The poison that vishaya exerts on the human mind can also be eliminated and countermanded, when man is fascinated by the sweet melodies of Namasmarana or Sankeerthan - that is to say, by the repetitive chanting of the meaningful names of the Lord. The poison, in both, can thus be transmuted into pure nectar.

Scriptures are endless; Sadhanas are countless; opportunities are few; time is already overstocked. But you can easily win the battle of life, in spite of these handicaps, provided you arm yourself with Love, which is the essential teaching of all Scriptures, the goal of all varieties of Sadhana, the best use to which all opportunities can be put and the most profitable way of utilizing the precious capital time.

The day when deep devotees sing songs in
praise of the Lord and please the ear;
The day when sorrows of the poor recur and 
men move closer as brothers born;
The day when servants of God are fed with Love and Care,
in thankfulness;
The day when a Great One comes to us and
relates thrilling tales of God.
These indeed are worthwhile days.
The rest are like days dedicated
to obsequies for the dead.

Do not consider any act of service as demeaning. Sweeping the streets, for example, is not below your dignity. Do you not sweep the floor of your homes? Do you not scrub and wash off dirt? When you undertake such tasks, the villagers will also gladly share in them. Why feel ashamed to be good? The ridicule that may be cast on you has been the reward of many saints. It will soon fade away. Muhammad was driven out of Mecca by those who could not appreciate his teachings. Jesus was crucified. But their names resound in the heart of millions.

I have no sense of distinction between Bhaktas who worship this form or that. All can come near, all who crave for heat or light. The heat of this splendor will destroy the chill of sensual pleasure. The light will scatter the darkness of the ages. Cultivate Love and Prema towards all; that is the way to gain nearness. I do not measure distance in terms of meters or miles. The range of Love decides the distance for me.

The real aim of education must be to help the student discover the Divine in every being. Saint Vemana Says: Scholars, study! study! study! But the fools do not know what they are! Studying, studying. - The scholar is not free from vice; nor has he become wise. Then why study these mean, mortal things? Study only that which is deathless. The most desirable subject for study is the Secret of the Soul which is Immortal.

Seva is the adoration of the Lord, as Vishwa-Virataswarupa, as having the multifaced form and immanence in the entire Universe. The Vedas describe Him as thousand-headed, thousand-eyed and thousand-footed. The thousands of hands and eyes that have come here for the festivals are all His, the Lord's. Worship Him; that is the purpose of your Seva. And He is none else than your own self.

You must discover your identity; then only can you have peace. You are like a man who has forgotten his name; his address and his mission in life. Realize it and try to delve deep into yourself; so that you may know who you are. Then you get security and peace. Sharpen your intellect for this purpose; and cleanse your consciousness for this purpose through Sathsang, Japa, Dhyana, Namasmarana etc.

Valmiki was a highway-robber who waylaid and killed hundreds without hesitation; he was the slave of passion and emotion; but, when the seven sages whom he waylaid one night, counseled patience, forbearance and self-enquiry, he turned heroically into the path of Ram (giving up the lure of Kama or lust) and achieved immortality and immortal fame, as the narrator of Rama's story.

 Scatter the seeds of Love in dreary desert hearts; 
Then the sprouts of love will make the wastes green with joy;
The blossom of Love will make the air fragrant;
The river of Love will murmur along the valleys;
And every bird, beast and child will sing the song of Love.

Prayer is the very breath of religion; for it brings man and God together and, with every sigh, nearer and nearer. Dhyana is the process of listening to the Song Celestial, the Flute of Krishna, with the mental ears alert on the melody. Yoga is the merging of the Mind in the Bliss of self-forgetfulness, when the music fills the Consciousness.

The primal formless Absolute wedded Desire and the Mind was born. The Mind wedded two wives, Inner contemplation and Outer activity. The first gave birth to five sons; Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi, Prema and Ahimsa, the Five Pandava Brothers. Mind was infatuated more with the second wife, and so, gave birth to a 100, each one with a name indicative of badness and wickedness, the Kauravas. God was on the side of the Pandavas and they won.

The universe is seen; it can be learnt about; it can be experienced and enjoyed. But, God is unseen. He has to be inferred through His handiwork. So, too, society to which social service can be rendered, cannot be seen as such. We can contact only individuals. But, through the individual, you infer the immanence of the Divine. All are actors on the world stage, in His play. Every atom is surcharged with His Power, His Might and His Glory, every being is surcharged with His Bliss, His Beauty and His Goodness.

Be devoted to the Universal; be eager to become that; when you pray to God for a job, a son, or a prize, you are devoted not to God, but to the job, son and to the prize. Pray to God for God. Love, because it is your nature to Love, because you know nothing else and because you cannot act otherwise than Love. Expand yourself, take in all! Grow in Love.

Having an open heart, do not relish the narrow path of restricted love; love all, do not develop prejudices against men in power or position. They too are our kith and kin. We all sail together. Be convinced of one Truth about Me; Swami will never lay a hand on a task without proper reason and without having some profound effect that will flow there from.

When the Giver of Grace is here, you run after persons who claim that they got this or other article from Me, or were blessed with this gift from Me; When you have Kamadhenu here, why seek to know and secure a cow? Kamadhenu can give you all that you need. When you have Kalpatharu here, why bother about the fruits on a tree? Kalpatharu can give you all that you ask. When you have here the mountain of Gold and Silver, Meru, why cringe for silver and gold from persons who are themselves beggars? When you have God come among you, to support and sustain you, why grovel before crude vulgar entities?
[NOTE: Kamadhenu is a wish fulfilling Cow in Indian mythology which could satisfy any wish. Kalpatharu is a wish fulfilling tree also in mythology which could satisfy any wish.]

Man is equipped with a return-ticket when he takes birth. Holding it in his grasp, he earns and spends, rises and falls, sings and dances, weeps and wails, forgetting the end of the journey. But though he forgets, the wagon of life moves toward the cemetery, which is its terminus. It brings no glory to man if he is tied helplessly to the wheel of birth and death. His glory and greatness consist in disentangling himself from that revolving wheel.

Intellect alone can direct man in the path of discrimination, between the true path and the false; the proper and the improper. This is the reason why man has been praying since Ages, through the Gayatri 'hymn' "Illuminate me, prompt my intelligence, so that I may walk aright".

Shankara wrote a verse summarizing the advice he gave the poor struggling Brahmin householder at Varanasi (Benares City).

Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam,
Bhaja Govindam, Moodha Mathe,
Samprapthe Sannihite Kaale,
Nahi Nahi Rakshathi 'Dukrun Karane'

"Praise the Lord, praise God, praise God, you fool, when death knocks at your door, rules of grammar cannot save you"

Of what avail is a car, A bank deposit, a bungalow in a posh extension of the city? If you have all these but no love in your heart, the heart becomes a dark deserted temple, where the bats of lust and anger breed in the ever-lasting night. Such hearts are foul, diseased with terror and error.

Birds, beasts and trees have not deviated, from their nature; they are still holding it valid. Man alone has disfigured it, in his crude attempt to improve upon it. So, the Avathar has to come as Man among men, move as a friend, well-wisher, kinsman, guide,teacher, healer and participant among men. He has come to restore Dharma and when man follows Dharma, he is pleased and content.

Get up, place the rosary in the bag and engage yourselves in relieving distress; that is the true spiritual path. Do not waste all your years with stone images, pictures or idols, learn to see in every living vital active person, the embodiment of all energy, all beauty, all beneficence, namely God. God is subtler than ether filling the smallest crevice with His Majesty. Know this and serve His manifestations, wherever you meet them.

Contentment is heaven; grief is hell; anger is the foe; calmness is the armor; and compassion is the comrade. You repeat shanthi three times, don't you? It is to encourage peace in the human, Godly and natural milieu in which you have to live; also to develop peace, in the body, mind and intellect.

All men have two constables ever with them; they are the symbols of his sentence of imprisonment. They are 'Abhiman' (sense of I) over 'Mamakar' (sense of mine), the egoistic feeling and the pride of possession. Man is a prisoner of his senses as long as these two keep him under guard. Man strays away into misery and pain, because he loses the sense of value and runs after the temporary and the trivial. He ignores the voice of God which warns and guides him from within; and he pays the penalty for the transgression.

An act dedicated as an offering to God, resident in all, becomes as sacred as the highest seva, that is why Avathars happen; hence, when you offer seva to mankind, the Avathar will naturally be pleased and you can win Grace.

The individual born in the lake of society must swim and float in the calm waters, and joining the river of progress, merge into the ocean of Grace; man has to move from the stance of 'I' to the position of 'We'. To this day, we see only the wild dance of ego-stricken individuals, who hate society and behave most unsocially.

The call of the Divine echoes in every heart; it provokes the reaction of awe, reverence, affection, love and sacrifice - all ingredients of Bhakti. It translates itself into acts of worship, of praise, of adoration and of rituals symbolizing the majesty of God. Thus, the mind gets saturated with Divine thoughts. It is recast in the Divine mould, until the flow of Ananda becomes unabated.

God, First; the World next, myself last! That is the legitimate sequence for the Sadhaka; and, who is not a Sadhaka? You have to be one, now or later, so that you can be liberated from this cycle of birth-death! Now, Man, in his callousness towards his own welfare, has turned it topsy-turvy! It is myself first, the world next, and God is last. So, God is lost too! Hold fast to God; then, you will be safe.

My activities are not for publicity or propaganda or even to confer joy on others! They are for conferring joy primarily on Me! I have no need to please others and to earn approval or appreciation. For, I and you are not different entities; you are I; and I am you. I am the current that flows into every bulb and illuminates it. Those who see me as separate are seeing falsehood. I am in your hearts; you are in Mine. Don't be misled into doubt and distress. Dogs may bark and jackals howl; but Truth moves majestically forward.

"There is only one God and He is Omnipresent". True. But to concentrate on the Omnipresent, some fixed point or preliminary form is needed. And to conceive of the Divine as present everywhere and at all times, the mind of man is to be clarified and purified by means of a certain psychological process called Sadhana.

Remember, God is your guardian, when you sleep; when you are helpless; even when you have forgotten or neglected or discarded Him. He has no need for your offer or promise to offer. He is ever content, ever blissful, ever full and ever free. Do your duty to yourself - that is enough offering for Him.

Man must first decide, after vigorous self examination and continuous discrimination, the path he wishes to traverse. Moksha or liberation, means the removal of bonds of ignorance that could hide the truth and create a mirage of the truth. In fact, living is only another name of the process of achieving alternate misery and happiness, hunger and contentment, illness and health, desires and fulfillment.

The Sai Religion is the harmonious blending, through Love, of all religions, though some followers of other faiths feel that Sai Religion is contrary to theirs. We should not entertain similar feelings. Ours is the totality, the sum; we should not limit or restrict our Vision.

You may have a vast scholarship, fame or fortune. But, the bee can give you a lesson on how to be free from torment. The tree can teach you forbearance and tolerance. It offers shade to all, irrespective of age, sex or religion, nationality or status. It helps with fruit and shade even to the foe who lays his ax on its trunk! The dog can teach you a lesson in faith, self-less service and the process of dedication.

Remember, you cannot have the Anubhava and the Ananda first. And you cannot postpone faith until you get them. You cannot bargain: Give me Ananda and then I shall have faith; See the Purushottama in all Purushas. Purusha means: he who lives in the rural or port-city or town. Each one of us is the resident and the sole resident of a distinct house of God. But, the Purushottama, the supreme resident in all the cities is God. You can recognize the Purushottama, if you educate yourselves properly.

Form small Satsanghas and meet regularly for Bhajans and mutual consultation about spiritual matters. Read some fine spiritual classics like Bhagavatha. Fill your eyes with the beauty of His form, your ears with the story of His Leelas, and your hearts with the sweetness of His Glory; inspire yourselves by seeing Him everywhere. Think of His immanence in every hill and dale, every man and beast, every tree and insect. You will be really thrilled by the joy of that vision.

Man is growing more and more greedy to know more about the lives of others, more extrovert in fact. He wants to escape from himself, by interesting himself in others. He does not want to worry about the details of his own life or the problems of his own rehabilitation. Of what benefit is all this burden of information that you seek to carry in your head, this knowledge of various regions of the world, without a knowledge of the region of your own self, the center of all the interest that you evince?

Everyday, when you take food, you are offering eatables to the fire that God has put in you to digest food. You have to eat in a prayerful mode, in profound gratitude. The Gita says that the fire which cooked the meal is God; the meal is God; the eater is God; the purpose of eating is to carry on the work entrusted by God, or pleasing to God; and the fruit of that work is, progress towards God.

Prema must grow with every moment of Sadhana. It must sweeten every word, deed and thought of yours. Emerge from Dhyana as a person more charged with Love! Return from Bhajan with a greater measure of Love! Return from Nagarsankirtan with a firmer conviction that everything is surcharged with the same Divinity that is behind all your activity.

The beauty of nature is but a reflection of the beauty that is God. But like all images, it is not substantial. Flowers fade, clouds scatter into new patterns, physical charm is but a flash that disappears in a moment. But Divine beauty is eternal, full and free. That Sundaram is Sathyam, unaffected by any passage of time, unchanging with the location; that Sundaram is the real Shivam, the only good that is. Pursuing petty physical beauty leads man astray; it is as calamitous as the pursuit of trivial joy.

You must all study the Gita daily. Read a few slokas and meditate on the meaning yourself; it will dawn on you in the silence of your heart. You need not read elaborate commentaries. Each word in the Gita is a gem. No more do you need gemstones for the ear, the nose and the neck; have the gem of the Gita slokas in your heart; let them activate your intellect and your hands.

We shall act ever as if we are in the presence of God, as if God is watching and weighing every thought, word and deed. See yourselves in all; see all in yourselves; that is the road to lasting peace and joy. Let us not seek the outer empire; let us become the rulers of the inner empire. Let us not try to defy the outer enemy, leaving the inner foe to grow in striking power. We have Krishna with us, and so, who can defeat us? We shall win through his Grace.

The Gayathri Mantram is a universal prayer that can be used by men of all climes and creeds, for, it calls upon the glorious power that pervades the sun and the three worlds to arouse, awaken and strengthen the intelligence, so that it may lead to intense Sadhana; and Sadhana may lead to success.

Happiness and peace do not follow when man is fed well, clothed well, housed well, and educated up to a good standard and employed under comfortable conditions, with no injury to health or security. There are many who have all these in plenty but who are yet worried or in pain or discontented. They depend on the inner equipment of man, not his outer skill or riches.

Punarvasu, the star under which Rama was born, has a mysterious influence on the authority which accepts all who submit to the Saranagatha-Thrana aspect of Rama's Glory.

If you live on the level of the body and the individual, you will get entangled in food, fun and frolic, ease, envy and pride. Forget it, ignore It, overcome it -- You will have peace, joy and calm. In the Divine Path, there is no chance of failure; it is the Path of Love.

One of the first principles of straight living is - Practice silence, for the voice of God can be heard in the region of your heart only when the tongue is stilled and the storm is stilled and the waves are calm. There will be no temptation for the others to shout, when you talk to them in whispers. Set the level of the tone yourself; as low as possible, as high as necessary to reach the boundary of the circle you are addressing. Conserve sound, since it is the treasure of the element Akaasa, an emanation from God Himself.

Spend the allotted span of years in the contemplation and the adoration of the Almighty, not in servile praise of the feeble, the futile and the weak. Life is an opportunity afforded to each, not to eat and drink, but to achieve something nobler and grander; to master oneself and merge in the Reality.

A person being transferred from one goal to another will have two constables who will escort him; the Punya and the Papa (good consequences and the bad consequences of actions) are the consequences who lead man from one birth to another. If you must escape from their attention and avoid migration from one goal to another, act - but do not calculate the consequences. That is to say, do not worry about the consequence; leave it to God who prompted the act and made it possible. Dedicate the act, the will and the wish, all to God.

It takes time for a fruit to mature and acquire sweetness and become eatable; time is a prime factor for most good fortunes. Make full use of Me, that is all I ask of you. I have at any time no feeling of separateness. I invite all to come and know and derive benefit from Me. Dive and know the depth; watch an discriminate; eat and know the taste- I long for people to do that.

Sarvam Vishnu Mayam Jagath: The universe is saturated with Divinity; there is nothing here which is not HE; Isaa Vasyam Idam Sarvam. He is the base and the superstructure, the material and the manner, the inner motive and the outer movement. The body is the temple of the Lord; the atmosphere of this temple is by its very nature, filled with Love for all beings. But man, overpowered by egoism, fouls it with envy and greed and so it festers with disease and distress.

There are some who always condemn themselves and their lives and aspire for the Grace of God to save them. Jiva and Deva are two separate entities and never can they merge or unite, they declare. The obvious is very often untrue. Sin is not the real nature of man; It is acquired and can be shed. Man is pure good, loving and wise. That is why in the Nilayam, I have stopped people from reciting slokas which proclaim man as sinful, born in sin, reveling in sin, etc., Let the purity, which you are, get manifested; endeavor to express it in your activities; that is what pleases me and wins my Grace.

I am telling you this because it is a forecast of what you can expect in the coming days. I have been declaring since six or seven years that the day when millions will gather to benefit from the Avathar is fast coming; I am advising you to garner and treasure all the Grace and all the Bliss you can, while you may, so that you can sustain yourselves ruminating on the sweetness of the memories and the experience.

We have to pay attention to the plans that intelligence dictates, not the external signs of orthodoxy. A person may appear strictly orthodox, but his heart may be filled with the poison of hate and envy. Has he realized that God is the God of all, that He is present in every being - Sahasraseersha -Sahasraaksha - Sahasrapaad (thousand headed, thousand eyed, thousand legged) as He is?

When Avathars come, they choose the time and the place, clan and the family, and they decide and bring the comrades and co-workers. When Rama came, Sesha, Sankha, Chakra and other inseparable adjuncts of the Lord also incarnated; the Devas also came down, in order to taste the sweetness of the Lord's company and service. Rohini, under which Krishna was born, is related to the attainment of Yogic success and the powers that flow from it.

How can darkness conquer or stand up to light? Krishna is Premaswarupa and He can be won over only by Prema. Audacity cannot approach Him. Actors in films, however, correct their accouterments (equipment) and intonation; they can never be the Real. Not even the biggest scientist can understand Me by means of the categories to which he is accustomed. I always smile at those who deride Me and even those who praise Me. I am always full of Santhosha, Whatever may happen. Nothing can come in the way of My smile. Derision and calumny only tend to make it grow better and happier.

Three disciplines are essential, to become aware of the Divinity in all and in the Avathar. No activity should be taken with individual aggrandizement in view; intellectual emotion must be directed to the revelation of the resident in the Heart. Atma; every act should be done sincerely, with love, with no yearning for acquiring personal profit, fame or benefit. Above all, listen to the voice of God within. As soon as one contemplates a wrong act, that voice warns, protests, advises giving up.

Many people think that Concentration is the same thing as meditation, but there is no such connection between concentration and meditation. Concentration is something which is below your senses, whereas meditation is something which is above your senses. But many are under the false impression that concentration is identical to meditation, and they take to a wrong path. Concentration is something which we use involuntarily in our daily, normal routine life.

To many, it may appear strange that, in this Anandalaya (Abode of Bliss), There exists an Arogya Nilaya (Abode of Health) or Hospital. They may wonder why prominence is given to bodily health, in a place that is dedicated to the health of the spirit. But, for attaining the four aims of human life, Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Prosperity), Kama (fulfillment of desires) and Moksha (freedom from bondage), the basic requirement is health of the body and the mind.

It is enough if Prema is cultivated, the Prema that knows no distinction between oneself and another, because all are but limbs of one corpus of God Almighty. Through Love alone can the embodiment of Love be gained. Here, no scholarship is needed; in fact, scholarship will be an impediment, for it caters to egoism and it breeds doubts and the desire for disputation and laurel of victory over others preening themselves as learned.

The Himalayas, which form the bastion of Bharat, are the symbols of might and majesty; they remind us of the purity that we should develop in ourselves; they teach us that we should be as firm, as unshaken as the snow-clad peaks, as unaffected by the noise and turmoils of the bazaars of mankind.

Between concentration and meditation, there is a border area which covers both and that is the area of contemplation. To be in that area of contemplation is to free yourself of worldly attachments. If you break away all the worldly attachments - all the routine attachments in the world - then you enter the region of contemplation. When you have completely broken away all your attachments, you break through this area of contemplation and you get into the area of meditation.

The ultimate step of Self-realization depends upon the base of self-confidence. You must therefore develop as a first step confidence in your own self. Without having and developing confidence in your own self, if all the time you are talking of some power being with someone else, if in this way you travel all the time and depend on power which is with someone else, when are you going to acquire any power and confidence in oneself?

Even when the Divinity comes down as an Avathar, man is unable to pierce the veil and revere the Divine. Lord Krishna says that people are unable to recognize the Divinity that is He, because they deem Him to be merely human. Only those who are aware of the current within, the Atma, can identify the Source of power before them.

What is a school for? To make man human. Man has in him specific attributes which have to be developed and fostered, so that he can rise up to his full stature. If these are ignored or allowed to lie fallow, he exists at the animal level only. Discipline alone can make him grow into his heritage. The animal can be transformed by training, to behave like man.

The true aspirant will have a reverent attitude to the duty he is bound with. He will carry out every task assigned to him as if it is an act of worship, by which the Lord can be pleased and through which he can approach the pedestal of God. Duty is God; Work is worship --- That is the motto.

You cannot be fresh and feeling fine, wearing a washed vest under an unwashed shirt; or, an unwashed vest over a washed shirt. Both have to be clean, to provide a sense of tingling joy. So too outer and inner cleanliness is but the reflection of the inner achievement. There is a strange glow on the face of a guileless person. Inner cleanliness has its own soap and water - the soap of strong faith and the water of constant practice.

Man is flying toward the moon, and diving into the sea; but, he does not know how to live on earth with his fellow-men, in love and peace, he moves toward the moon for fear others may reach there before him; and dives through the sea to strike terror, himself terrified of others! The way to live without fear or causing fear is laid down in the Gita, the very first sloka of which is about Dharmakshetra!

Reason can prevail only when arguments are advanced without the whipping of the sound. Silence is the speech of the spiritual seeker. Soft sweet speech is the expression of genuine Love. Hate screeches; fear squeals; conceit trumpets. But, love sings lullabies; it soothes; it applies balm. Practice the vocabulary of love; unlearn the language of hate and contempt.

I like simplicity, I like a dress that will not discourage people from approaching you for a kind word, a bit of service, a helping hand. It must be clean and decent; not outlandish and queer. It should not be worn to attract attention. Just as you desire to wear clean comfortable clothes for the body, desire also clean, consoling exercises for the mind, like Japam and Dhyanam.

I shall tell you why I give these things, talismans, rosaries etc. It is to signalize the bond between Me and those to whom they are given. When calamity befalls them, the article comes to me in a flash and returns in a flash taking from Me the remedial Grace of protection. The Grace is available to all who call on Me in any Name or Form, not merely to those who wear these gifts. Love is the bond that wins Grace.

I had to tell you so much about my Truth, for, I desire that you should contemplate on this and derive joy from the reform, so that you may be inspired to observe the disciplines laid down by Me and progress toward the Goal of self Realization, the realization of the Sai that shines in your hearts.

Do not attempt to know Me through the external eyes. When you go to a temple and stand before the image of God, you pray with closed eyes, don't you? Because you feel the inner eye of wisdom alone can reveal Him to you. Therefore do not crave for the trivial material objects; but crave for Me, and you would be rewarded.

Worship is not an uniform to be put on and off at stated hours each day. Render every thought into a flower worthy to be held in His Fingers; render every deed into a fruit, full of the sweet juice of Love, fit to be placed in His Hand; render every tear holy and pure, fit to wash His Lotus Feet.

If each one does his duty, in the spirit of dedication, the light can illumine all. But, if the doors of the heart are shut against the light, how can darkness disappear? You cannot sit back and expect the incarnation to bring peace and joy into you. The incarnation comes to warn, to guide, to awaken, to lay down the path and shed the light of love on it. But, man has to listen, learn and obey with hope and faith.

The best way to resolve the confusion and conflicts that hamper moral, ethical, material, technological and spiritual progress is for man to live as fully as man ought to, and to rise to the height of the Divine, that is his Reality. That is the one eternal, universal teaching. The thoughts that the intellect frames must be reflected in the mind, and translated into action by the hands. Thought, word and deed >must be coordinated. They must fulfill one another, The sign of a holy person of Mahatma is "Manasyekam, Vachayekam, Karmanaekam","One mind, one word, one act".

To achieve release, man kneels before a million Gods, in frantic pain. If he but blasts the ego within the goal is reached, he is freed indeed! It is difficult indeed to understand the ego in its depth and devious ways. It is an inert entity: that is to say, it cannot know itself nor can it know others; It has no fear; it will not bend before others; it degrades man from the golden glory, which is his due, to the level of lowly dust.

The deer, the elephant, the cow, the horse - these live on sathwic food and behave in a sathwic manner. So they are adored and even worshipped by man. Tigers, bears, hyenas and other wild animals are feared by man and are driven by him into the dark recesses of the forests. The wonder is that the wildness, the cruelty, and the terror-inflicting attributes of these beasts are developed and exhibited by man himself! Man prides himself as the crown of creation, he declares that he has in him the spark of the Divine. But, he ignores it or suppresses it and revels in displaying the qualities of the ferocious beasts of the jungle.

We have a feeling that Ananya Bhakti consists in surrendering to God by saying, "I have no Savior other than You". We think that by simply declaring "You are mother, You are father, You are friend, You are my savior Oh God of Gods" means we have surrendered and are practicing Ananya Bhakti. Real Ananya Bhakti comes from deep inquiry into the Reality of the Inner Self.

Words can confer strength; they can drain it off. Words can gain friends; they can turn them into enemies; words can elevate or lower the individual. One must learn the habit of making one's words sweet, soft and pleasant.

A person is judged by his words; words inflict damage in other ways too. Whenever we talk disparagingly or defamingly or sarcastically or hatefully of others, they get recorded on the tape which is our own mind.

Sathya and Dharma go together; they are the two faces of the same coin. "Satyam-naasthi Paro Dharmah":" There is no Dharma higher than Sathya. Righteousness is built on the foundation of truth."

The world today is in a very bad state. The situation can improve only through Asthikas, who are believers in Divinity. They should become Prema Swaroopas or Embodiments of Love and by their Sadhana, backed by patience, forbearance and compassion, play their role in serving society and contributing to the betterment of the world. God is present in you and is visualizing through thousands of eyes what you do. Even when no one is seeing, God is watching your actions always. Do everything with this awareness.

There are three types of knowledge: Knowledge of matter-energy; knowledge of mental energy; and knowledge of cosmic energy. Cosmic Energy works in every person in the form of Divine Knowledge. Matter in all forms is only Energy. Without atoms, you cannot have any matter, and, in the atom, energy has the form of electron, proton,neutron, etc. Energy springs from the structures of the atomic constituents.

The Godward path is Karma based on Dharma. That is the path also towards joy, contentment and therefore, of strength. Now, the path has become ridden by an overgrowth of briar and bush; the bridges and culverts are in disrepair. People have forgotten the goal, the path and the habit of walking on it. That road is the only refuge; it must be trodden tomorrow, if not today, for the goal lies at the end of the road. It was laid down centuries ago beyond the memory of history, in the Vedas. 'Sathyam Vada, Dharmam Chara': The Vedas call on you.

All religions exhort man to cleanse the heart of malice, greed, hate and anger. All religions hold out the gift of Grace as the prize for success in this cleaning process. Ideas of superiority and inferiority arise only in a heart corrupted by egoism. If someone argues that he is higher or his religion is holier, it proves that he has missed the significance of his faith.

Sacrifice, service and sharing in the exaltation of others; and compassion when others suffer grief: these are the virtues that purify and prepare the individual to the arduous task of reaching the Goal. Expand the limited awareness of the individual into the limitless realm of Divine Glory - that has been the call down through the corridors of Time.

For each person there is a code of conduct laid down in the Shastras, according to age and status, the profession adopted, the stage of spiritual attainment reached and the goal of life accepted. Do not carp at the behavior of others or at the efforts they make to get consolation and courage amidst the turmoil of life. For each, there is the path that he has chosen and the Name and Form of God he prefers. Also, do not give up your code of duties and take up that recommended for someone else.

Delusion has to die; then only does the cycle of change end. Then only man is liberated from the bonds of birth, life and death. Call it "reaching the Goal" or "Sayujyam" or "Bramhasaakshaatkaaram" or "Aikyanubandhaanam" or "becoming one with the Infinite" - the Names may differ but the End is the same. Every mortal must attain immortality, for he is 'Amruthasya Putra', a child of immortality.

It is much easier to speak the Truth and be done with it. What you have seen or heard or done, speak about these just as you saw or heard or did! And what is Dharma? Practicing what you preach, doing as you practice in life. Earn virtuously; earn piously; live in fear of God; live for reaching God. That is Dharma.

The five elements have each a characteristic that affects and attracts the five senses: Sound (ether) which fascinates the mind through the air; Touch (air) which draws the mind to itself through the skin; Form (fire), which manipulates the mind in its favor through the eye; Taste (water), which enslaves the mind through the tongue; and Smell (earth), which attracts the mind though the nose. Contact with the external world is maintained by the senses for the sake of these experiences, which yield joy or grief.

There is not the slightest trace of self interest in Me. Whatever I do, whatever paths I pursue, everything is intended for the happiness of all, for the good of all, and for the improvement of all. Not a single action of Mine is undertaken for the satisfaction of My own personal desires. Desire is something alien to Me. My wishes are only to promote the welfare of the world. "Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu" is the only objective of SAI (May all the World be happy).

Sai's main purpose is to develop the minds and attitudes of young men to work along right lines, so that they may work for the welfare and progress of Bharat. Students are the only wealth I cherish. All my hopes are concentrated on them. To reform and train them to serve as exemplars of righteousness is Sai's sole resolve.

I do not have any particular desire with regard to food or any other need. My 'Ananda' is My food; and to secure that food I promote happiness in others and derive delight from their joy. That is the significance of My statement: "My life is my message". To feel blissful in the enjoyment of happiness which others experience is a quality of the Divine.

You will come to know that you are a spark of the Divine flame. Very soon you will realize that others too are sparks from the self-same fire. How then can hate or anger, envy or greed, survive in the Sunlight of the Vision?

You are the image of the Supreme Atma, the image that is reflected in the body that is part of 'Prakrithi'. Your body is kith and kin of all the objects that surround you in nature; your body is an object among so many. The original Divine Spirit, the individualized Spirit, which is the image and the objective world of which the body is a part - these are the entities called Eswara - Jiva - Prakrithi

It is not enough if you are at Puttaparthi. You have to engage in Sadhana to win my Sankalpa. You may think that the burden of the consequences of acts done in previous births cannot be easily brushed away. No, they can be destroyed, as a heap of cotton is by a spark of fire. 'Jnanagni Dadgdha Karmanam': the speck of Jnana will destroy the effect of Karma in a trice.

Do not jump to conclusions, abdicating your discrimination, and do not deny the validity of your own experience. Stand on your strength. Be unmoved either by adulation or denigration. Follow my Lead. I am unaffected by either. I march on alone, undeterred and of My own accord. I am My own guide and witness, have full faith in this.

Today, man dabbles in Yoga (devotional practices) in the morning hours; revels in bhoga (festivity and luxury, catering to the senses) during the day; and tosses about in roga (disease) during the night! Bhakti is not to be performed during certain periods every day and superseded by other fashionable attractions. Bhakti is a constant continuous bent of mind, a habit of thought and a way of life. It must be loyally adhered to whatever may happen: dishonor, distress, despair, deprivation, pleasure, prosperity or pomp.

Man seeks joy in far off places and peace in quiet spots; but the spring of joy is in his heart. the haven of peace is in himself. Even when he walks on the moon, man has to take with him his fears, his anxieties, his prejudices, and his pet aversions. Have faith in God and in the correctness of moral living. Then, you can have peace and joy, whatever may be the fare that fortune offers you.

The parents gave you this body and fostered the intelligence and love that are embedded in it; so, gratitude is their due. If you do not honor the parents who are the creators in human form, how can you learn to honor the Creator in Divine Form? Moreover, the parents reveal to you the glory of God and the means of worshipping Him; they are the first representatives of the authority which you meet with, authority modified by love and care. Learn to bend before that authority and you will learn how to submit before the Lord.

Poems that deal with the fundamental problems of life and death, truth and delusion, and virtue and vice, will last for centuries and will help man at all times. Problems of exterior living change and get changed. So, when poems deal with them, they are short-lived. 'Prakrithi' and 'Paramathma', Creation and Creator, are like two halves of a pulse (bean), and seeding sprouts from between them

You have it in your power to make your days on earth a path of flowers, instead of a path of thorns. Recognize the Sai resident in every heart and all will be smoothness, softness and sweetness for you. Sai will be the fountain of Love in your heart and in the hearts of all with whom you come in contact. Know that Sai is Omnipresent and that He is present in every living thing and you. Adore everyone as you adore Sai.

The span of life allotted to man is very short; the world in which he lives is very wide; time extends far behind and far beyond. What little man has to do here has to be done quickly, at the place that is assigned to him and within the time allotted to him. And, man has such a formidable task before him; it is to fulfill it that he has come as man, exchanging for this human habitat all the merit he has acquired during many past lives. The task is no less than the manifestation of Divinity latent in man.

Rise up to the Divine, don't bring Godhead to your human and even animal levels. Do not worship God as the picture before you, but worship the picture before you as God, because God is in everything and can be grasped through every single symbol. There is nothing wherein He is not; there is no might or right, apart from Him.

Snakes hiss; pigs grunt; and bills moo! They are asserting their ego, intent on keeping others away. Of the traits of ego, pride is the most poisonous. But, the pride of the scholar and the vanity of Pundits are so thick, that it is impossible for them to get rid of these.

God is the vastest among the vast, minutest among the minute. Yet, God has no Ego. How then can man, who has no claim to even the tiniest glory, parade himself as great? It is really a ridiculous pose. The egoist ignores the source which can bring respect to him. He loses the chance of developing his skills and talents on the right lines.

What can ten baths a day do to cleanse a person, when his mind is fouled by evil thoughts? What can shaven head and the ochre clothes do to foster spirituality when his mind is riddled by desires and wants? You may rotate a ball of sweets round the mouth but unless it is put into it and eaten, hunger will not be abated. So, develop sincere longings, cleanse the mind, purify the thoughts and put the precepts into practice.

Some of you claim to be Saibhaktas, Ramabhaktas, and Krishnabhaktas. No, unless you are perfect instruments in His Hand, you do not deserve that name. For example, Bharata can call himself Ramabhakta. He lived with Rama-Nama in every breath; He suffered as much as Rama; He was as much an anchorite as his brother; so, he too became Shyama (dark skinned) like Rama

The body has to be exercised to keep it trim as a tool for serving your fellowmen. The body has not been granted by God in order to be fed and well clothed and to be paraded around in pride. Plunge into the problems of society, take up the burden of the family and advance the interests of the country. Shine as examples of loving service.

When you struggle to achieve paltry fame by devious means; remember who among crores of your countrymen are honored today and for what? Don't you see that only those who gave up, renounced, and sought the more difficult road of God-realization, instead of the easier path of world-realization are honored everywhere?

The Lord rushes toward the Bhakta faster than the Bhakta rushes towards Him. If you take one step towards Him, He takes a hundred steps towards you! He will be more than a mother or father. He will foster you from within you, as He has saved and fostered so many saints who have placed faith in Him.

You must not be a bit of blotting paper, absorbing all the passions and emotions, all the joys and griefs that the actress of nature demonstrates of the stages of life. You must be a Lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it!

Faith in God is the secure foundation on which hope has to be built. The faith has to be stable and strong. The feeling that God will come to our rescue has to be vivid and vital, motivating and activating all that we do or speak or think. Service rendered to others in this spirit will be a great source of joy to you as well as to the recipient.

Women are proverbially too individualistic! There is a popular belief, born out of folk experience, that three women cannot live in unison! There is a Telugu limerick, which says, "The world shivers before one woman. The ocean will dry up, if there are two! And if there are three, O, the stars will drop down at noon!" Why is woman so characterized? Woman is extremely deficient in sahana, I mean ability to bear defeat, fortitude, forbearance, patience and quiet, suffering with no thought of retaliation. That is why woman is said to be the weaker sex.

Silence, cleanliness and forbearance. In silence can be heard the voice of God, not in the revelry of noise. Through cleanliness, you earn purity. By forbearance, you cultivate Love. You have come today to your own home. This is your home not Mine. My home is your heart. So, do not try to have your lunch elsewhere but in your home, where you get this day food consecrated by Me, the Prasad.

One should progress from this stage to the awareness of the Atma. Flowers fade and rot soon. The effect of offering flowers may not last long. What God loves more are the flowers blossoming on the tree of man's own life, fed and fostered by his own skill and sincerity. They are the flowers of his virtues grown in the garden of his heart.

It is the duty of everyone to live in the awareness of Truth. He who lives on Earth must become Man at first. Then, he has to learn the way to God, and discover the delight of the Spirit. This is the 'Raja Yoga' path that the Vedas teach. The Atma illumines all objects; It needs no other source of illumination to shine; It is the seer of the Universe.

Nowadays, man has got into the habit of acting and talking as per his whims. There is no control exercised by conscience or moral sense or manners. For one who is so perverse, who is determined to go down to his doom, there is no need for counsel! Medicine is for the ill, not for the wholly healthy, or the wholly dead. Counsel is for those who suffer from doubt, anxiety or agitation. This counsel is contained in the shastras and sacred texts.

God is seeking the pure heart that longs to reach Him. The world is reduced to a theater by man, for, devotion to God has become a histrionic performance. You find people weeping in their hearts, but, laughing their lives away. We find people who laugh in their heart of hearts, but, to all observers, weeping profusely over their fate. Worship is more for effect, a play acted with the pit in view; there is no sincerity.

Man did not come here to sleep and eat; he has come to manifest, by disciplined processes, the Divine in him. That is why he is called 'Vyakthi', he who makes 'Vyaktha' (clear) the 'Sakthi' that is in him, the Divine energy that motivates him. For this purpose, he has come endowed with the body and the intelligence needed to control it and divert it to useful channels of activity. You must achieve this by Dharma, Nishtha, and Karma - Nishtha - steady pursuit of Dharma and Karma, morality and good work.

The world itself is a great teacher, a constant guide and inspiration. That is the reason why man is surrounded and sustained by the world. Every bird, every animal, every tree, mountain and star and each tiny worm has a lesson for man, if he has but the will and the thirst to learn. These make the world a veritable University for man; it is a Gurukul where he is a pupil from birth to death.

The Linga is the Form of God, emerging from the 'Nirakara' to 'Sakara'. Other 'Akaras' (Forms) are all subsumed in the Linga Form. 'Prakrithi' or the objective world is the base; it signifies that the Lord is established in that manifestation of His, which is the concrete presentation of His play, His potentiality and His power, His Sakthi. That is why the Lord is described as Shiva, Shakthi, Atmaka and Swarupam, the Supreme to which belong Shiva and Shakthi, the latent and the patent.

If you do not feel the call at the sight of human distress, disease or deviation from the right, how can you muster the determination and dedication necessary to serve the unseen, inscrutable, mysterious God? When you do not love man, your heart will not love God. Despising brother-man, you cannot, at the same time, worship God; if you do, God will not accept that hypocrisy. God is resident in every heart; so, if you serve any one, that service reaches God within him: it brings to you the Grace of God.

The heart that does not melt at the sight of persons caught in the coils of ignorance, disease or deprivation, has to be labelled demonic; to call it bestial is an insult to the beasts. Give up egoism, sensualism and greed; fill your hearts with renunciation, belief in the glory of the Atma (Self) and Love. That is the means by which you can make yourselves efficient Seva Dal Workers.

The pollution of character that is spreading in the cities is fast invading the villages also. The villages should not yield to the temptation of imitation and invite catastrophe on themselves. They must appreciate the ancient Indian ideals of simplicity and sincerity, service and spiritual-oriented living. You must curb greed, anger, envy and pride, and live in amity and the spirit of brotherhood. Then India will be happy and prosperous. Each one must carry out the duties of his role in a worshipful attitude.

Life has been bestowed not for just eating and digesting and roaming and reclining, but for a far greater purpose - the realization of Divinity in us, in all that exists around us and even beyond all things that strike our senses. To waste such a life in vain pursuits and in mere senses of pleasures is not the sign of an intelligent person. Deserve the Grace of God by helping the weak and poor, the diseased and the disabled, the distressed and the downtrodden.

Shiva is worshipped with the three-leaved bilva, for He is immanent in the three Worlds, in the three phases of Time and in the three attributes of Nature. He removes the three types of grief; He has no basis outside Him; He is the source of Bliss; He is the embodiment of the sweetness and efficacy of nectar. Since every being is Shiva Swarupa (for without Siva, it is mere 'Sava' - Corpse), man has to live up to that Divine status.

Faith has to be cultivated, first and foremost. It has to be nurtured in Love. Love is fostered by Shanthi (equanimity). Shanthi can be got only when there is full reliance on God and complete surrender to the Divine Will. If one loses wealth, he may regain it by some means or other. If he loses health, some doctor might prescribe a tonic to win it back. If one loses status and authority he may, by sheer luck, gain them back. If Virtue is lost, it is lost forever; nothing can restore the pristine purity. So one has to be ever vigilant and should never slacken.

The greatest of the virtues is Love. Love is the basis of Character. You may have all other desirable things in plenty; but if you have not character, that is to say Virtue, which is all strung on Love, you cannot have genuine Peace. Money comes and . . . goes! But morality? It comes and grows! Morality has to be grown in the heart by feeding it with Love; then only we can have justice, security, law and order. If Love declines among the people, nations will weaken and mankind will perish.

This created Universe has two aspects. One is impermanence ('Anithyam'). In Gita, Krishna has said "Anithyam Asukham Lokam Imam Papya Bhajaswa Maam". Nothing in this world can give happiness that is, true and lasting happiness. Mistaking this world as 'All' and forgetting the Atman which alone is eternal and is the only refuge, is the greatest folly of man.

Today, man is pinning all his hopes on this slippery world and is madly running after amassing and hoarding wealth. Of course, material needs are to be taken care of, but within limits, and not at the cost of spiritual values. Money and mansions are not the only wealth. Hoard the wealth of the Spirit. Character is wealth. Good conduct is wealth. Spiritual wisdom is wealth.

Devote your body, mind and senses to the service of others. "Paropakarartham Idam Sariram" it is said. This body is intended to do only good and service to others. The body is not gifted to you so that you hate and nurture jealousy against others and live selfishly, worse than an animal. You should devote this precious gift of the body in selfless service always.

Shanthi has detachment as the basic quality. The sea which likes to gather and possess lies low; the cloud that likes to renounce and give is high up in the sky. Shanthi endows man with an unruffled mind and steady vision. The prayer for Shanthi is usually repeated thrice: "Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi", since peace is prayed for in the physical, mental and spiritual planes. Man should not bring his blood to boil nor should he yield to fear.

Man has been enslaved by money. He lives a superficial, hollow and artificial life. This is indeed a great pity. Man should seek to possess only as much money as is essential for his living. The quantity of riches one must own can be compared to the shoes one wears; if too small, they cause pain; if too big, they are a hindrance while walking. Money too has to be with us only just enough for a life of physical and mental comfort. When we have more, it breeds pride, sloth and contempt for others.

The world is becoming more and more deeply immersed in irreverence and cruelty. Codes of decent behavior are being ignored and laughed at. The material is receiving greater attention than the moral and spiritual. Faith in the victory of Truth, Justice and Goodness is fast disappearing; the distinction between good and bad is seldom recognized.

Joy is a deceptive trap; grief is the real preceptor, teaching caution, circumspection, discrimination, detachment, awareness and vigilance. Death is not the merciless one that he is made out to be; he is the friend and companion, the teacher, the kindly kinsman, who takes you into his fold and clothes you with the halo of remembrance. The heart of man has to be toughened, not hardened; it has to be made soft, not slithery; this can be achieved only by the blows of loss, grief and distress. It is God's way of shaping us in the Divine mold.

The sages of this land had known the mine of Ananda that lies in every human heart and they had discovered methods of developing that mine and working on that gold. They said that if 'Bhoomata' (Mother Earth), 'Gomata' (Mother Cow), 'Nijamata' (the Mother) and 'Vedamata' (Mother Scripture) were revered and fostered and used as best as they could be, happiness is certain and liberation is assured.

You will be doubtless agree when I say that Ananda is your greatest need. But, you cannot order it from any shop. It has to be earned the hard way - doing good deeds, moving in good company, desisting from evil and keeping the mind attached to the Glory of God. Good and bad cannot be kept together in the same vessel; then the good also will turn bad. Night and light cannot coexist.

You are getting the great change or partaking in a huge Sathsang from today. Thousands are coming to this place, prompted by a keen desire to see, hear and contact Divinity, and for those who have kindled desires, the chance to move about in the sea of spirit is indeed a sign of Grace. This is the benefit, as fairs and festivals are held in holy places, the wave of exhilaration, enthusiasm and exultation lifts men aloft into the rarefied air of holy beatitude.

Have your Prema fixed on the Lord, whether your petty wishes are fulfilled or not. Do not let slip the treasure, on some silly excuse or other. When Sai Baba confers success after success on you, you are foremost in singing, "Sai Shankara, Sai Shankara", but when the shadow of disappointment falls on you, immediately you turn round and declare, "This Sai is not God".

Practice renunciation from now on, that you may set out on the journey when the call comes, you don't know when. Or at that moment, you will be in tears, when you think of the house your have built, the property you have accumulated, the fame you have amassed and the titles you have won. Know that all this is for the fleeting moment; develop attachment for the Lord, who will be with you wherever you go. Only the years that you have lived with the Lord have to be counted as life, the rest are all out of count.

The glory of Bharath which has illumined for centuries the hearts of humanity is awaiting the march of the Sai Movement, through proper presentation and practical application by you, to have an even more brilliant future in the coming years. As the spark that causes the fire, as a driver in the engine drawing a long line of coaches along, as the designer and operator of a system of 'automatic lights,' this Sai is here creating and fostering the world and all its various communities living and non-living.

Maya can be recognized and driven out only when the mind is purified by Prema and the avoidance of envy and hatred, born of egoism. No act done without Love can be commended; there are many who come here, thousands in fact, year after year, sharing in the Bhajans, listening to discourses, lectures and staying but they are exactly where they were when they first arrived. Name without 'Bhava' seldom reaches the mark. The name of the Lord must be recited with awe and wonder, humility and reverence.

Learn from childhood the recitation of the name and prayer and practice of silence. Let children contemplate the beauties and the magnificence of God's handiwork and be filled with mystery and awe. Do not count and calculate what the Puttaparthi Sai Baba gives. I do not give, in order to attract you to Me; I give only to fill you with 'Ananda'. Showering 'Ananda', is My task. I do not want you to extol Me; I shall be satisfied if you rely on Me. The mysterious indescribable super power has come within reach. It will never engage Itself in any task without fruit.

Music, a vehicle of peace, is universally popular; men, women and children of all lands are amenable to its subtle influence. Even animals and plants are susceptible to music. The Lord has said, "Madbhakthash yathra gaayanthe, thathra thishtaami Narada": "Where My devotees sing, there I seat Myself".

People of all ages, of all states of health and wealth, of various levels of learning and intelligence come to Prashanthi Nilayam. This Prashanthi Nilayam is also the refuge for all who have no other place to go to. Do not treat any one as an alien. Remember all have Me as their guardian and support. Have no anger, malice, envy or pride against or before anyone. Be full of humility; have faith in human goodness.

You can hear adoration to Sathya Sai's Name reverberating throughout the world, even while this body is existing - not at some future date, but when it is with you and before you. And again, you can witness very soon the restoration of 'Sanathana Dharma' to its genuine and natural status, the 'Dharma' laid down in the Vedas for the good of all the peoples of the world. The revival of Vedic Dharma is the Sai Sankalpa (the resolve that Sai has), not only drawing people towards Me, attracting them by the manifestation of My 'Shakti' (Power) and 'Samarthya' (Capacity). This is not a 'Brahmathathwa' (phenomenon of delusion). This phenomenon will sustain Truth, it will uproot untruth, and in that victory, make all of you exult in ecstasy. This is the Sai Sankalpa.

Rely on the Lord and accept whatever is your lot. He is in you, with you. He knows best what to give and when. He is full of Prema. That is My uniqueness: Prema. Prema is the special gift I bring, the special medium through which My Grace operates. That is the basis of all My acts. God is said to reside in everything. Yes. He resides as Prema. Devoid of Prema, the World becomes a cauldron of misery.

Before pointing to the faults of others, examine yourselves and assure yourselves that you are free from faults. That alone gives you the right; but the wonder is that you discover faults in others only when you have faults in you. Once you rid yourselves of faults, all are pure and good. Whatever you touch becomes gold; that is the Divine Alchemy of Love, Divine Love, Universal Love and Love for Love's own sake.

Since I move about with you, eat like you, and talk with you, you are deluded into the belief than this is but an instance of common humanity. Be warned against this mistake. I am also deluding you by My singing with you, talking with you and engaging Myself in activities with you. But, any moment, My Divinity may be revealed to you; you have to be ready, prepared for that moment. Since Divinity is enveloped by humaneness, you must endeavor to overcome 'Maya' (Delusion) that hides it from your eyes.

When a Namavali extols Shiva, the next one will have to be on Krishna, the next on Rama and so on. A person whose favorite form is Rama or Shiva will feel neglected if, out of inadvertence, you stick to only one form. Let the atmosphere of Bhajan be free from competitive conceit and fanaticism. This is My advice.

You are only actors on the stage before the footlights. The Director, who knows the Play, who assigns the roles, who gives the cues, who calls you in and puts you on is behind the curtain. You are a puppet; He holds the strings. If He must be seen, you have to be His 'Sakhaa' (friend) or 'Bandhu' (kinsman). Merely being an onlooker will not entitle you to approach Him and be in His Holy Company. Cultivate His Friendship or Kinship by the attitude of Love and Dedicated Service.

To realize the One, the Universal Absolute, which personalizes itself into God and creation, there is no discipline more valuable and more effective than Seva. All the 1008 Names of the 1000 faced society connote only the One God that plays in those 1000 roles. The One appears as if it is enshrined in the 1000 bodies. This is the Truth you have to realize and cherish as the most precious in life.

Man cannot reap the full fruits of his life here below, if he only gathers riches or collects popular votes or loads his head with tons of tomes. He has to cultivate and practice virtues too. He has to adhere to Dharma. The Sruthis direct that man has to earn just enough for his upkeep by honest means and use the rest of his time and skill for the general good. Dharma-Artha. Earn Artha through Dharma. Then he will certainly have plenty of Divine Grace.

One gets the liberating wisdom of the Reality through Grace or Prayer or Prema. You cannot achieve the goal through good works alone. In good, there is en extra 'O', a something that is mere Zero; that is to say, the desire which prompts you, the fruit that entices you, the reputation that tantalizes you - these are all sheer zero, a big O. Leave it off, then, we have God who is Zeroless, with no self-intruding, that is to say, we have God. Desire plus Life, is Man; Life, minus Desire, is God.

Man loses his status of humanness, through acts that shame even the beasts. He does not strive toward revealing and manifesting his latent Divinity! That is not as big a failing as this sliding back into the animal from which he rose! If he keeps on with his human attributes and capacities, that will serve him well enough. A formidable list can be made of the inadequacies and defects of man but the basic defect is greed, "Uncontrolled desire" - always clamoring for more, as a result of the ceaseless prompting of the senses.

The spark of Love in you has to be cherished and fed, so that it may reach God; then every being will be God; every act will be Divine; every reaction you get from the outside world will be charged with Prema and sweetened with nectar. You love the God in all beings and the God in all beings responds with Love. Love God, though tribulation may be your lot. Love Him, though you are refused and rebuked; for, it is only in the crucible of travail that the metal is purified and cleared of blemish. Adoration of God has to be through one name and one form; but that should not limit your loyalty to that particular province only.

Prema, when you cultivate it, will remove the weeds of anger and of malice. It will blossom into peace and calm. My teaching is Prema; My message is Prema; My activity is Prema; and My way of living is Prema. There is nothing more precious than Love within human grasp.

Bharath is the birthplace of the Vedas and of the Shastras, Epics and Puranas that have elaborated the principles enunciated therein for the education of the common man. It is the nursery of music and other fine arts, inspired by the noble passion of consecrating human skills for adoring the Divine and communicating the supersensuous. It is the stuff and sustenance of the mystic and the ascetic, the intellectual and the dynamic adorer of God. It is the field where the Science of Yoga was cultivated and systematized.

Who is Baba? Who am I? And the answer is: I am the reflected image of Baba. Baba is the original of which I am the reflection. That is the relationship. That is the bond, whether you know it or not. Whether the image is distorted or correct, you do 'Dhyana' morning and evening; you do 'Japam', you engage yourself in 'Sravanam', 'Kirtanam', 'Padasevanam', 'Vandanam', 'Dasyam', 'Archanam', 'Sakhyam' and 'Atmanivedanam' - all for realizing that you are but an image to become a clean, clear image of the Lord; so clean and clear that you merge in Him.

Endurance with joyful resignation of the ups and downs of life is the royal road to Peace. Everyone craves 'Sukha' and 'Shanthi'; but there is no one to instruct Youth how to win them. The Ramayana and the Mahabharatha are reservoirs of knowledge for the seekers of Peace. They are replete with examples and precepts which are inspiring and timely. By taking the teachings to heart, Purity can be attained. The pure heart directed towards God and reflecting His image is indeed Heaven, Vaikuntha or Kailasa.

Living under the impression that you are the body and you are destroyed with the death of the body is an illusion which is basically undesirable. Another illusion is that happiness consists in accumulating money, knowledge, comforts or reputation. Trying to be happy through such accumulation is like getting into the Madras bus and hoping to reach Bangalore. What is happiness? It is the state of mind which is, by fortune, good or bad. By systematic education, the mind can attain the state. If activity is done as worship, then the mind can attain the state. If activity is done as worship, then the mind will be steady and free from anxiety.

The word Hindu means those who keep away from the path of violence, away from inflicting injury on others, Hin (Hinsa - Injury; Violence); du (dura - away, distant). The Shastras declare that the essence of all the 18 Puranas, so highly revered in India, is: Merit is when you do good to another; sin is when you do evil to another. When you are fixed in this path, you will welcome all faith and religions as kith and kin. All faiths attempt to train man along the path. Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Parsis all aspire to win the same illumination, through the cleansing of the mind by means of good work.

When a tree first shoots forth from the seed, it comes up with a stem and two incipient leaves! But later, when it grows, the trunk is one, and the branches are many! Each branch may be thick enough to be called a trunk; but one should not forget that the roots send food as sap through one single trunk. God, the same God, feeds the spiritual hunger of all nations and all faiths, through the common sustenance of truth, virtue, humility and sacrifice.

This Nilayam is "Prashanthi Nilayam". It is the abode of the highest form of Shanthi - Prashanthi. In fact, you are, each one of you, the Nilayam of Prashanthi. That is why, I very often address you as "Shanthi Swarupulaara" ! My object is to remind you that your real nature is Shanthi, equanimity, peace, unruffledness and non-attachment. You cannot draw out from within you that which is not there, is it not? Therefore, Shanthi must be deep down, at the very core of your being.

This world is full of people who suffer from insanity, but who are still outside the asylums! Suddenly, when hatred envelops a country, even ordinary sane people go mad and behave like savages. But in the mental hospital, you will find, some times, one type of "mad man". He sits in a corner, resting without a break, watching the pranks and the wildness of the other inmates. The doctors will be thankful to him, for he needs no care; he causes no trouble. His madness may be melancholia or he may be a Jnani. The God-bound man is like that. He is the only sane man in this mad world.

Become fit for the vision of God that you seek in the temples. Go humbly, with Prema in your heart for all creation; take the 'Hrudhayapushpa', full of fragrance of Prema, the 'Mano-phala' uncontaminated by the pests of greed and egoism; Become sweet in word, deed and thought, so that you can dedicate yourself to the services of God's Plan.

You will have seen the announcement that you should not bring Me fruits, flowers etc. Some of you, I know, are sad that I have announced so. But tell you; Come to Me with empty hands; I shall fill your hands with gifts and Grace. If your hands are full, what am I to fill them with ?

All worship and puja is for 'Bhakthi' only, for the better comfort and more luxurious consumption of the worshiper himself. Devotion has been vulgarized into a business deal. I shall give you so much, provided you give me so much in return. If that shrine promises more, this shrine is given up; if even there, you do not get quick returns, somewhere else, some other God might be more profitable. That is the way in which worldly men wander about in their panicky rounds.

You are distant from the Lord as you think you are, as near Him as you feel you are. Well, let me tell you this. This distance from Me to you is the same as the distance from you to Me, is it not? But, You complain that I am far from you, through you are approaching nearer and nearer. How can that be ? I am as near you as you are near Me.

When a prisoner is taken from place to place, he is accompanied by two constables. When man, who is a prisoner in this jail, moves from one place to another, he too is accompanied by 'Ahamkaaram' an 'Mamakaaram': Egoism and Attachment. When he moves above without these two, you can be sure he is a free man, liberated from prison.

Do all the household work as acts of worship for Him; that is more fruitful than hours of Dhyana, hours gained by entrusting this precious work to paid helpers. Men too must feel that frittering away precious time, flitting from one vanity to another and seeking more and more purposeless means of spending days and nights is detrimental to the main aim of life. Spread joy, give strength, distribute courage, console the distressed and help the lame to walk and the blind to see. That is the real time-table of activities of man.

The wealth that you hoard is not yours; the wealth that you have shared is yours. For wealth that belongs to you need not be hidden. The wealth that you have given away is really yours. That is the reason why Vedas have declared: "Not through actions, not through progeny, not through wealth can Immortality be won; it can be won only through renunciation".

If only you surrender your wish and will and your fancies and fantasies to God, He will lead you alright and give you peace and joy. You must not run after diverse ends and fleeting pleasures. Leave everything to God; accept whatever happens as His Will.

God is the echo of the hills, the flutter of the leaves, the whisper of men, the babble of children and the OM that is wafted everywhere. God is present at all places; but to recognize Him Saints have had to prescribe a thousand methods. He is in everyone, yet He evades discovery by all but a few, being all-powerful. He is the Giver of all Gifts, the Providence bestowing upon us all the wherewithal: "Asvrithya Thishtathi" (He remains All Encompassing).

Through sheer ignorance, and perversity, the Shastras have been ignored and set aside, and man is misleading himself into the belief that his fancies are true, just and beneficial. Man has thrown his "humanness" into the crater of cruelty, forgetting his best interests under the influence of hatred, envy, conceit and power. He has cast aside the expanse of his culture. As a result, peace has flown from the heart of man, from the fold of Society and the boundaries of Nations.

One flower cannot make a garland; all flowers must come together to make one. So you must equip yourselves with strong bodies, sacred ideals and unselfish intentions in order to serve your country. You can achieve any high ideal, provided you are cooperative, well-disciplined, soaked in service and sacrifice and fully determined to succeed.

Do not hope to gain Grace by looking down upon mankind and looking up at Sai. Remember, that your dress, behavior and appearance will reveal your character and attitude towards others. Always have sweet, soft words on your tongue; cast your eyes only on holy sights. Wear clean, simple clothes and do not imitate those who are fascinated by latest fashions in dress and style. How can you do Seva when you move so far away from the common man ? I advise you to "Follow the Master". By 'Master' I mean the Conscience within you, the Voice of God.

Service is God. Why has God endowed man with a body, a mind and an intellect ? Feel with the mind, plan with the intelligence and use the body to serve those who are in need of service. Offer that act of service to God; worship home with that Flower. Put into daily practice the ideals that Sathya Sai has been propagating and make them known all over the World, by standing forth as living examples of their greatness.

The Upanishads proclaim that Thyaga alone can grant 'Amrithatva' (Renunciation alone can bring about the Bliss of Immortality). One has to ignore all bonds of kinship and comradeship, give up all attachment and affection, and in the heart thus liberated, install God in all His Glory. This is the only means to earn everlasting and undiminished Ananda.

Do not hesitate to practice humility and obedience, discipline and compassion; Give up pride at your status, wealth, scholarship or official position. "Can I, a big Officer, a rich merchant, a great scholar, a man highly respected in Society, descend to this level of clubbing with this sorrowing man ?" Do not ask such silly questions. Everyone of these qualifications of which you boast will disappear with death or - sometimes - sooner. The Ananda that you share will be your lasting possessions.

The great axioms of Bharathiya Culture found in the Vedas - 'Iswarassarvabhuthaanaam', 'Isaavaasyamidam Sarvam', 'Vasudevassarvamidam' -

'God is the inner Motivator of all beings';
'All this is enveloped in God';
'All this is Vasudeva and the Divine is to be inside one'.
This is the inner mystery of the Incarnation.
God incarnating in all !
All are one; The One is All.
There is only one God; He is Omnipresent !
There is only one religion - the Religion of Love.
There is only one Caste - the caste of Humanity.
There is only one Language - the Language of the Heart.

What is the root of worry ? Wants and the efforts to fulfill them, and the fear of not succeeding to the extent desired. Reduce wants and you reduce worry. You congregate here in the Nilayam verandah, seeking, personal interview with Me, with a load of wishes in your heart, wishes that you want me to fulfill ! Why carry all the load ? Carry only one load, the desire to win the Grace of God; he will confer what is best for you. Leave the rest to Him.

What is this life-time ? Is it to struggle in the mire or march straight on to the eternal ? You will get millions to tell you what is pleasing to you, but it is difficult to get one in a million who can tell you what is good for you. What is good for you is akin to Truth, Truth is hard, but beneficial. It is unpleasant advice to tell a man to stick to Truth at all costs; Truth alone pays dividends that satisfy.

Make your body and mind pure. This place is like a workshop where broken-down cars are repaired and made whole. Do not entertain bad thoughts and do bad deeds. Life is holy and sacred. Go through it, with joy and happiness. Do not carry gloomy, unhappy faces. Happiness is union with God. This period of your life is sacred. If you can-not derive happiness and live in Bliss at this age, can you be blissful when you grew old ? Now, you have only two legs to carry; you can jump about freely. But when you marry and rear up a family, you will move like a caterpillar with many legs !

We talk of Moksha. What is it ? It is only giving up the 'Anatma', the Unreal. Suppose you want a tumbler of fruit-juice, unless you throw away the water already in the tumbler you cannot pour the juice in the tumbler. Similarly unless you give up materialism, 'Atmabhava' (spirituality) cannot come to you. 'Moksha' is not a distinct and different 'Sadhana'. It is only giving up unnecessary desires. Through anger, wisdom is lost: disharmony is the cause of anger; for disharmony, jealousy and, for jealousy, ignorance is the cause.

To presume that either from wealth or from kith and kin you can derive mental peace is a great error. Such peace only comes from God. In fact there is no strength superior to Love; where Love is there everything is. So you must live in God; and live in Love; then everything shall be right. You must make others also live in Love.

So long as man is bound to the body, his God too has to be in a body like his own. It is often said disparagingly that God is conceived as having eyes, nose, tongue and limbs. When the person who worships has these, the worshipped too must have them, in order to make the worship meaningful. Only when one is unaware of his 'form', can he adore the 'Formless' ! It is indeed surprising that those, who laugh at God being pictured as having a body do not laugh at their being enclosed in a body ! When man has to be corrected and liberated, God has to come as Man, as Narayana had to do to save Mahabali.

The Vedas are the foundation of the Bharathiya Culture. If in modern Society, a trace of spiritual illumination is visible, we can ascribe it to this Vedic basis and the way of life I demand. All moral codes (Dharma) have emanated from the Vedas; and all the worlds have Dharma as their sustenance: "Vedamulam Idam Jagath".

You will learn that I am Prema itself; that I give only one thing, Ananda, through that Prema. My task is to distribute solace, courage and Shanthi. That is to say, My characteristic are the ancient authentic ones; only the manifested Form is new. My desire, if I can put it in so many words, is this: 'More, and more should yearn for Me. The desire will be realized only if I assume this Form and come among you'.

People think they live on food. Then how is it that, while the wealthy who can afford all kinds of food succumb to untimely death, the poor still live ? Man does not live by food alone. In fact he lives by the power of the Soul. Without discrimination, what is the use of physical strength ?

Once Narada was asked to name the most noteworthy among the things of the World. He answered that the Earth was the biggest. But he was told water has occupied three-fourths of the Earth; it threatens to swallow up the balance too, bit by bit. So, water, he had to agree, was more powerful. However, water too was drunk up by the Sage Agasthya and the Oceans were rendered dry by him and he, in turn, is now just a star in the sky ! Is the sky the biggest, then? For it was covered by one single foot of the Vamana-Avatar of the Lord. And, the Lord? O, He enters the hearts of the devotees and resides there. So Narada had to conclude that the hearts of Bhaktas are the grandest things in creation.

Every day, when you sleep, where are you? Who are you? Your senses are inoperative; your intelligence is in abeyance; your mind creates a World of its own, and after playing in it for some time, it lapses into inactivity. That is sleep, the nearest you reach in your journey to Samadhi. Live in the 'Atmathathwam' that will ensure 'Shanthi'. With the poison of 'Raga' and 'Dwesha' inside you, how can you be pronounced healthy? If you experience the 'Atmathathwam', you become Bhagavan Himself.

Whether one is a renowned scholar with expert knowledge of the deepest levels of religious lore or a monarch revelling in the brilliance of palatial luxury or a hero of many battles, or a miserable victim of poverty - if one has no devotion to the Lord, one does not deserve homage, honor or attention.

A life without character is as barren as a temple without a lamp, a coin that is counterfeit and a kite whose string has snapped. A teacher who instructs pupils with his eye fixed on his salary and a pupil who learns with his eye fixed on a job are born missing their vocation. The teacher has to help the pupil unfold and manifest the skills and qualities inherent in him and encourage him to rise to the fullest height he is capable of. The Divine is the Core in both the teacher and the pupil.

The desires that cling to the mind are the blemishes that tarnish man's inner consciousness. Control the senses; do not yield to their insistent demands for satisfaction. When a corpse is place on a pyre and when the pyre is lit, both the corpse and the pyre are reduced to ashes. So too, when the senses are negated, the mind too disappears. When the mind disappears, delusion dies and liberation is achieved.

Vaak or voice has to be rigorously trained to avoid chatter and wandering prattle. Keep the tongue under control; do not express what all you are prompted to say: cut that inclination to the minimum. Silence will charge the battery and you can win through a longer period of 'Dhyana'. Be full of Prema and then your words will spread Prema. They will be sweet and soothing like balm to those who suffer.

Upasana means that all your thoughts, deeds and words on those holy days must be about God; that you should spend the day 'Near' Him, 'in' Him and 'for' Him. It means that eating, sleeping and other bodily avocations have to take a secondary role and that Meditation and Japam have to take the main role. If your body wastes away as a result of these fasts, God will be blamed. So, you are only drawing down the calumny of people on the God you adore.

Why must man live for years - a burden on earth, so much of rice or wheat consumed year after year, with no return in joy or peace to himself or others ? The Petromax light will shine bright only when you pump air vigorously, that is to say, engage yourself in Sadhana and illumine your mind better and spread light on all who come near you. [PS: Petromax is a gas based lantern that is used in India.]

Those who deny God are denying themselves and their glory. All have love in their hearts, in some form of other, either towards the children of the poor or their work for the good of others. That Love is God, the spark of the Godly in them. They have Ananda however small and temporary, and that is a spark of God and the Godly. They have Shanthi, Detachment and Sympathy, All these are the reflections of the Divine on the mirror of their minds. These are all mental excellences, revealed through an appreciation of the advantages of virtue.

The principle of Love has no trace of ego or blemish. It is fully free from selfish attachment. Whatever Sai does, whatever Sai thinks, whatever Sai says and whatever Sai observes is all for your sake, not for Sai's sake. My only desire is your Ananda. Your Ananda is My Ananda. I have no Ananda apart from yours.

Whatever thoughts arise in Me are only for the peace and welfare of the world, for the progress of Youth and for transforming ideal boys and girls who will lead others along the path. You must dedicate yourselves for rendering enthusiastic service to the people of the World, recognizing that the Sai principle has no egoistic urge.

Prayer must emerge from the effect to the causes. The individual Self has to yearn for the Supreme Self. It must emerge from a pure heart. Prayer-drinking cup must be clean both on the outside and the inside. Prayer should not arise out of the tongue, as music rises out of gramophone record. When the song does not arise from your depth, when you are not involved in it, how can it draw God unto you ? You must achieve confidence. Then, the self-confidence will lead to self-sacrifice and self-realization.

Wholesome happiness arises only from the fullness of Love; Truth, Peace, Charity and Fortitude. These can fructify only in the atmosphere of Love - sayeth Sai. Men yearn for good times, high status, power and good life. But seldom do they yearn for good thoughts, wisdom and virtue. What better advice can Sai give ?

God is the entity close to man, dearest to man - your mother and father might be a little afar but God is right with you. Even if you do not Love Him, He will not depart from you or move afar. "Anoraniyam" say the Vedas ('Smaller than the Atom'). He becomes "Mahathmaheeyam" expanding beyond the Cosmos and fitting all with Grace. In every call, He well be in you. You can earn this Awareness through intense Love.

Blessedness can be conferred only by the Divine Source; it cannot be acquired from worldly achievements and triumphs. It is dependent on the immutable triad of Sathyam, Shivam and Sundaram.

It assumes all forms, this Shaantham !
It assumes all names, this Shivam !
It is Sath-Chith-Ananda, this Only One !
It is Sathyam-Shivam-Sundaram!

Let the children, even grown-up boys and girls, touch the feet of the Father and Mother every morning before the daily tasks are started; it will generate a reverential atmosphere in the home. Five minutes in the shrine-room and the Namaskaram for parents - let this be the daily routine. The Upanishads recommend this as the basic requirement of our Culture: 'Mathru Devo Bhava; Pithru Devo Bhava; Acharya Devo Bhava'.

The home is the temple where the family, each member of which is a moving temple, is nurtured and nourished. The Mother is the high-priest of this House of God. Humility is the incense with which the house is filled. Reverence is the lamp that is lit, with Love as the oil and Faith as the wick. Spend the years of your lives, dedicating them for such worship in the homes that you will find.

People crowd into film shows, rush towards social clubs - spend days together in playing cards - but when they are asked to sing the Glory of God and purify themselves and the atmosphere, they clamor for concession ! When the heads hit against each other in anger, can the feet be steady and unaffected ? They too will kick and trample as maliciously as they can.

As the Vedas announce, there is no Dharma higher than Truth. Truth gets hidden, appears distorted and is declared to be failing; so, the Avatar asserts its validity and value once again. God wears Truth, the good seek Truth and the bad are rescued by Truth; Truth liberates; Truth is power; Truth is freedom. It is the lamp that illuminates the heart and dispels doubt and darkness. The effulgence of God is Truth. Welcome God in your heart. Install Him there as a result of yearning. Be always concerned with Brahman; then you are entitled to be known as a Brahmin.

Injury inflicted on any being is sacrilege, self-injury. Love is transformed into poison, if hate contaminates it. Love some but do not hate the rest, for that hate will foul the Love and make it mortal. Love comes automatically to the realized soul; but, the Sadhaka has to cultivate it by means of Seva and inquiry into the unity of the Atman. Love must flow not from the tongue or from the head only, but chiefly from the heart.

Remember three things always. Continue Seva, wherever you are. Seek chances of helping others. Never lose an opportunity of using your skills and enthusiasm for the alleviation of sorrow, pain or distress. Again do not omit or neglect or postpone your own particular spiritual Sadhana - study, Japam, Dhyanam, Bhajan, Namasamkirtan and other such disciplines. Above all, have the faith that Swami is with you at all times and all places.

Prasadam means Grace, which flows from God when He is propitiated. My Grace is ever with you; it is not something that is given or taken; it is given always and accepted by the Consciousness that is aware of its significance, win the Grace of your own sub-conscious, so that it may receive the Grace of God which is ever available. God does not deny anyone; it is only you, who deny God. When the gift is proffered, you have to do only one little act, so that you may earn it. You have to extend your hand to receive it.

The Kshetra or field or body must be transmuted into the Dharmakshetra, the purified area of virtue and Vairagya (Renunciation of lower desires). Then the Charioteer will take charge and man gets liberated; and the body become Brahmakshetra. That is the life-story of a self-realised person.

The Avatara-Purusha, however, has come solely to save mankind, and so, he is aware of the pilgrim, the path and the goal. He is the master of creation and He is fully conscious of His power. He knows the past, the present and future of all. He leads and liberates.

Ambition to earn fame in the world, to gain some position of authority over fellow-men, to lead luxurious life - this can never ensure Shanthi, mental peace. Mental peace is the result of quite different attainments. Wealth cannot command it, nor authority commander it ! It must be won the hard way through meditation, Namasmaran and the nine steps to the presence of the Almighty. It must be won on the Earth, to which man rightfully belongs; and, not on any other heavenly body towards which he may dare navigate.

The basic lesson that each religion teaches is to surrender to the sovereign-will of God and leave the consequences of deeds, well done, to the Lord Himself. It is His will and your only duty is to shape yourself into a fit instrument. To suppress the assertive ego, disciplines have been laid down in every religion, by every compiler of moral codes, by every educator and reformer of human morals. But the oldest, most effective and the most successfully practiced system is the body of directives laid down in the Vedas and Shastras of India.

Time ticks on relentlessly and man is born, lives and dies, rotating on the wheel of Karma and consequently unaware of the means of escaping from the oncoming destiny. Agony and anxiety have not softened his heart; adventure and achievement have not made him humble. He is proud of his advance in the path of hatred and haughtiness. He revels in cruelty and sin. He displays an unholy satisfaction in immorality and untruth. He has reduced himself to a level lower than that of beasts.

The receptacle may be different but the Divine content is the same. The taste of sea water will be saline whether you test a truckload, a bowlful, a potful or a sip or a drop on the tongue: the taste of the Divine can be experienced in the atom or the Cosmos, the friend as well as the foe, the virus and the Universe. This is Realization, the Liberation, the Illumination and the Revelation: "Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagath". This sphere of change is surcharged with the Omnipresent Divine.

From the narrow vision of 'individual need', man must voyage out into the broad vision of the 'Universal'. When a drop of water falls into the Ocean, it loses its narrow individuality, its name and form, and assumes the form, name and taste of the Ocean itself. If it seeks to live separately as a 'drop', it will soon evaporate and be reduced to non-existence. Each one must become aware that he is part of the one Truth that encompasses everything in the Universe. It is reprehensible to stick, for one's whole life-time, to the narrow path of selfishness, envy and greed. Make the heart big and the mind pure.

There is no discipline equal to service to smother the ego and to fill the heart with genuine joy. To condemn service as demeaning and inferior is to forego these benefits. If a wave of service sweeps over the land, catching everyone in its enthusiasm, it will be able to wipe off the mounds of hatred, malice and greed that infest the world. Attune your hearts so that it will vibrate in sympathy with the woes and joys of your fellowmen. Fill the world with Love. Love will warn you against advising another to do something which you yourself are unwilling to do; your conscience will tell you that you are living in a lie !

Ascetic practices, years of constant recitation of the Name, pilgrimage to holy places and shrines, study of the sacred books - these will not help the aspirant to spiritual victory as much as communion with the Godly and the good. Bharath is a rare treasure house of spiritual jewels; it can confer all boons on the sincere.

There are Four *F's* that you will have to fix before your attention:

Follow the Master;

Face the Devil;

Fight to the End; and

Finish at the Goal.

Follow the Master means: observe Dharma.

Face the Devil means: overcome the temptations that beset you when you try to earn Artha or wealth or the wherewithal to live in comfort.

Fight to the End means: struggle ceaselessly; wage war against the six enemies that are led by Kama or lust.

And finally, Finish at the Goal means: do not stop until the goal, Moksha or Liberation from ignorance and delusion, is reached.

The *F's* are fundamental for the pursuit of the four Purusharthas - Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.

No bird casts the seed on land to grow food for itself, nor do beasts plough and enclose fields claiming - this is mine, this is for my children and children's children. 'Nishkama-Karma' is the natural face of activity for the children of God, the progeny of Immortality. They sing and swim, they dance and drive, they talk and walk and they pray and pine, because they must; it is the nature too. They do not know what will happen, as a consequence, they do not care; they do not anticipate any result. They are just themselves when they do these things. It is Sahaja Lakshana, their innate nature and their inborn characteristic.

Jnana is not an attribute of the Universal Absolute (Param-Atma). It is Param-Atma itself. The Upanishads declare 'Sathyam-Jnanam-Anantham Brahma' (Truth, Wisdom and Eternity is Brahman). Jnana is the fulfillment, it is the goal, the consummation. Man is as ugly as a noseless face, if he has no wisdom, whatever other attainments he may decorate himself with !

Agriculture is for living; mind culture is for life. Skills are for shaping material things so that they cater more for the comfort of man; studies are for shaping attitudes, feelings, desires, emotions and impulses of man, so that they may confer more peace, more joy and more fortitude on man.

One day, Anjaneya appeared in a garden on the outskirts of Dwaraka. Krishna, who heard about the pranks of the strange monkey, directed Garuda to proceed and scare the animal out of the city limits. Garuda failed, even though he later took the entire army with him for the fray. His pride was humbled. Krishna sent a message through him to the monkey, who had declared himself as Anjaneya, that he should deign to come to Krishna's court. But Anjaneya, recognized only Rama and would obey only Rama. So Krishna had to send another message that Rama was calling him to His audience Hall ! Devotion compels the Lord to yield to the whims of His servants. Anjaneya hurried to see Rama and Krishna gave him the darshan of Rama Himself.

Egoism will be destroyed, if you constantly tell yourself, 'It is He, not I', 'He is the force, I am but the instrument'. Keep His name always on the tongue, and contemplate His glory whenever you see or hear anything beautiful or grand. See in everyone the Lord Himself moving in that form. Do not talk evil of others; see only good in them. Welcome every chance to help others, to console others and to encourage others along the spiritual path.

Man is suffering because he cannot rid himself of the greed for sense-objects, and sense pleasures, or Vishaya Vasana. He knows that he has to give up whatever he earns and collects, sooner or later; but yet his attachment waxes instead of waning, as the years go by. If every man on earth could take with him on death even a handful of mud from the earth, there would have been nothing much left and mud would have been rationed at so many ounces per head !

You have read that the Lord, melted and moved when one performs acute Thapas, comes and asks softly and sweetly: "My dear child, What is it you need ?" He wants you to express in words what you have yearned for and ask the Lord whom you have brought before you through the exercise of silence. That is the little game He plays. And sometimes He wills that the questioner answers in the way His plan demands.

To cross safely the flood of "Birth-Death-Continuum", the bridge, called Nishtha or discipline of an unflinching kind, is essential. It must be a sturdy, safe bridge: or else you will fall into the raging waters and be drawn into the sea, infested with the sharks: Lust and Anger. See how great heroes like Prahlada did not lose their hold on the Lord, in spite of heavy odds. Prahlada never gave up the repetition of the Name of the Lord, though he was tortured, twisted and burnt. One, must have that determination and faith.

Sorrows and disasters are like the clouds that flit across the sky; they cannot injure the blue depths of space. Your duty is just to strive on from this very moment. Do not vacillate or postpone. Who knows when death knocks ? May be, he may knock this very night, this very moment; therefore, do not delay. Do you postpone for tomorrow the dinner of this day ! Feed the spirit as scrupulously as you now feed the body.

You will find that you have craved only for paltry things and for momentary distinctions for fleeting fame; you should cry only for God, for your own cleansing and consummation. You should weep, wailing for the six cobras that have sheltered themselves in your mind, poisoning it with their venom: Lust, Anger, Greed, Attachment, Pride and Malice. Quieten them as the snake-charmer does with his swaying flute. The music, that can take them, is the singing aloud of the Name of God. And when they are too intoxicated to move and harm, catch them by the neck and pull out their fangs as the charmer does. Thereafter they can be your playthings; you can handle them as you please.

If you seek to fulfill low desires, why come here? Come here only if you seek to earn Grace. Go to a hospital only when you are resolved to take the drug the physician prescribes and go through the regimen he lays down. So, obey the directions that I give, whatever others may say or however difficult they may appear to be. You have not come to Prashanthi Nilayam to please those others. You have to please Me.

Rama is the personification of Dharma, So Rama partakes of the excellence of the Vedas. The Mahabharatha is generally known as the Fifth Veda. And the Bhagavatha describes the Glory and the Grace of the Lord and His splendor as the Indweller in All. So, that too is as efficacious as the Vedas to elevate man and to release him from the bondage to the mean and the sordid.

People talk loud and long from all kinds of platforms about Dharma, Prema, Shanthi, Daya, Sathya, etc. This is published in the newspaper next day and there their purpose ends. The paper of today is the waste-paper of tomorrow ! It is used for packing or thrown into the dust-heap and burnt as refuse. That is the story of all platform-professions. Put into practice a fraction of what you preach.

Turn the key in the lock to the right, it opens; turn the same key to the left; it is locked. Turn your mind towards the objective world, it is locked, caught, entangled. Turn it to the right away from the objects of the senses; the lock is loosened, you are free and deliverance is at hand. How to turn right ? Well, begin with Namasmarana, as the first step. That will itself take you through the second and the third...... to the very goal.

If liberation means the stoppage of grief and the acquisition of joy, then it is easy. What you have to do is to place all your burdens on God; that makes you grief-free and care-free. Then, when you take everything as the leela of Lord you love, you clap your hands in Ananda whatever may happen, for it is His leela and you are as happy as He is, when His plans are going through !

The mind must become the servant of the intellect, not the slave of the senses. It must discriminate and detach itself from the body. Like the ripe tamarind fruit, which, becomes loose inside the shell, it must be unattached to this shell, this casement called body.

Liberation is just the awareness of Truth, the falling off of the scales of delusion from the eye. It is not a suburb of select souls - it is not a closed monopoly of expert Sadhakas. Like the Godavari losing its form, its name and its taste in the sea, liberation dissolves the name and form, aptitudes and attitudes. You are no more a separate, particular individual.

You are happy, that you have come on a pilgrimage here, but let Me tell you one thing: unless you control the stream of desire that springs in the mind, this is just a wasted opportunity. If your wish is fulfilled, you revere Me; if it is not, you revile Me. That is how desire debases you. When one wish is fulfilled, ten rise in its place. For there is no dearth of want; the same person has come to Me seeking success at the examination, then a job, then a father-in-law, then a child, then a rise in the salary, a transfer in a cheaper place and a seat in the Medical College for his son - a never ending series of wants, until at last he comes seeking My Grace for an end to worldly pursuits and for initiation into the path of spiritual practice.

No one can liberate you, for no one has bound you; you hold on to the nettle of worldly pleasures and you weep for pain. The kite is pursued by the crows so long as it carries the fish in its beak, it twists and turns in the sky trying to last and it drops the fish. That moment it is free. So give up the attachment to the senses; then grief and worry can harass you no more.

When you know that thieves have broken into your neighbor's house, you become extra cautious and, every night, before you retire, you examine every lock and bolt in the house. When you know that death has carried away a victim from the house next door, why do you not examine yourselves, whether you are equipped to meet it when it comes for you ? Why do you immerse yourselves in distractions like building houses, piling bank-balances, celebrating picnics and contesting elections. Engage yourselves rather in things that will make you immortal and serve your best interests by service to the world ! Seek your own Reality, that is what a wise man should do.

Dharma purifies the mind and leads you to God. It creates a taste for the Name and Form of God. When you love the name and form of Krishna, you will naturally respect and obey the command of Krishna, His Agjna, which is found in the Bhagavad Gita. Have the Name on the tongue and Form in the eye; and the demon, called Aasa, unending desire, will fly from your mind, leaving joy and content therein. This kind of constant dwelling on the indwelling God will promote Love for all beings. You will then see good in others and you will strive to do good to others.

Remove the vices of lust and hatred, and put out the raging flames of anger and greed, then the innate Santham and Soukhyam and the Swarupam and Sevabhavam of man, will manifest themselves unhindered. Santham is the Swarupam; and Soukhyam; and is the Swabhavam of man.

The very fact that man is equipped with memory, mind, intelligence, discrimination, the ability to anticipate the future and the desire to detach himself from the senses is an indication that he is destined for some higher goal. In spite of this, if man craves for a lesser consumption, he is a Papi (Sinner). But he who persists, in spite of temptations and obstacles, on the path that leads to self-fulfilment and self-realisation, is a Gopi, for the Gopis of Brindavan were the most inspiring examples of such souls.

When the Gita directs you to give up all Dharmas (Set codes of morality), it does not ask you also to give up all Karma (activity): that is to say, you have to do Karma, and, when you do it for God, through God and by God, the Dharma of it does not matter; it has to be acceptable and it is bound to benefit you. The statement is not an invitation to licentiousness or complete inactivity; it is all for dedication and surrender to the highest in Man, viz. God.

The body can be clean if washed with water; speech can be clean if it is saturated in Truth; life can be purified if it is sanctified by Tapas; and the intellect can be cleared of blemish through Jnana. Above all, the conviction that you are not the body only a resident of the body has to grow in you. If you identify yourselves with the body that you carry about with you, you are inviting sorrow and suffering to overwhelm you instead of the joy and peace which are awaiting to bless you.

Do not admit into your mind the demon of A-santhi. Direct all your cleverness and all your intelligence to the successful execution of the great drama, in which all of you are taking part at present. It is His drama. He is the Director, you play a role, an actor carrying out His Will, speaking the words that He put in your mouth and making movements as directed by Him.

The experience of this one life must be enough to show you that there is no joy unmixed with grief, that both grief and joy are short lived and they both depend on the mind and its control. You do not require the experience of a series of lives to grasp this patent fact. This world is keeping you in bondage; it is a prison from which you must get released; and you should not plan to return to it again and again.

The eye which is scarce two inches long can see millions of miles into space, but is incapable of seeing itself ! Man too is as shrewd and as weak as the eye. He can analyze others' motives, count others' faults and map out others' skills and capacities, but he is powerless to analyze himself, his feelings and his emotions. Unwilling to discover his own faults, he cannot assess his innate skill and realize his inner reality ! But the power can be acquired if you keep company with Sadhakas (aspirants for spiritual progress), not otherwise.

Man thinks himself that he knows everything but, when asked about himself, he hangs down his head in shame. Man knows the news of every land, but he is ignorant of the nuisance that he is to himself and others. He is moving in darkness but yearning for Ananda. He does not know the means of securing Ananda: Prayer, Seva, study of spiritual texts, meditation and silence. He has no faith that he is Ananda and that Ananda is his own nature. He is blown off by calamity, for he has no strength to withstand the blow. Faith in the God within is the toughest shield against the thrusts of Fate.

Nests laboriously built by birds are torn away by storms; the fragrant petals of flowers are felled by rain. Defeat and victory are the obverse and reverse of the same coin; when you welcome one, you have willy-nilly to welcome the other too. Forbearance, compassion and incorruptible virtue are the three pillars of the happy life. Only such a life can be called civilized; the rest is barbarian existence.

When you do not accept the insult some one casts on you, it goes back to the person who indulged in it first; a registered letter that is not accepted returns to the sender. Do not damage your mental peace by receiving the letter and reading the contents. Refuse to receive it. You have a chance of correcting the wrong-doers too; accept it and pin the gang of mischief makers. So be warned !

WHEN you pray for a thing from God, you run the risk of condemning Him, if for some reasons the Prayer is not answered the way you want it to be or as quickly as you want it. This contingency arises because you feel that God is an outsider, staying in some Heaven or holy spot, far away from you. God is in you, God is in every word of yours, every deed and every thought. Speak, do and think as befits Him. Do the duty that He has allotted to you to the best of your ability and to the satisfaction of your conscience. That is the most rewarding Puja.

When you stand before another, his image is in your eye and your image is in his; have you not observed this? You are in Him, I am in you: that is the Truth this phenomenon proclaims. When you believe in this, and when you cultivate Love, Humility, Reverence for Life and Tolerance, you are on the Right Path. When you are not on this Path, that is to say, when you are traveling left, you are certainly left out when it is a question of sharing Divine Grace.

I know many parents who dote on their children and admire them when they learn the bad habits of gambling or drinking! They do not curb them when they swagger about in the bazaars, teasing and bullying those who pass by. They do not instill into the young minds the attitude of reverence towards property belonging to others. As a consequence, their children land themselves in trouble and, then, the parents repent and curse themselves for their unpardonable foolishness.

IF the parent is a drunkard, a gambler and a cheat, no amount of textbook ethics can cure the sons. I like children and the young innocence. I will not allow them to be blamed. The fault lies wholly on the shoulders of the elders, the parents, and the leaders who shape the norms which they imbibe.

Cleanse your emotions, passions, impulses, attitudes, and reactions. That is the essence of spiritual discipline as laid down in all Faiths. Examine your mind, your thoughts; do not seek the fault ridden person. Seek only purity; speak ill of none. Do not humiliate anyone; respect him for the good in him. Their grief at your behavior will haunt you during your last moments.

Life is a mosaic of pleasure and pain - grief is an interval between two moments of joy. Peace is the interlude between two wars. You have no rose without a thorn; the diligent picker will avoid the pricks and gather the flower. There is no bee without the sting; cleverness consists in gathering the honey nevertheless. Troubles and travails will haunt you but you must not allow them to deflect you from the path of duty and dedication.

If you feel you must have something to be happy, pray to God: "God, you have the responsibility to keep me healthy, happy, good and intelligent; give me this thing which I believe is necessary for my happiness; but, if you think I am wrong, give me whatever you think best". God will never desert His obligation. He will feed you and foster you.

Have patience; do not, in your hurry, enjoy cheap joys, fall into error and unrighteous deeds. Have faith that God will add unto you all the joys that you desire and deserve. People ask men for favors; they extend their hands towards others and plead "Dehi" (Give). But, "Dehi" means also, "He who dwells in the 'Deha' or Body; which is God". So, do not humiliate that "Dehi" by calling out "Dehi" before others. Say "Dehi" to the Dehi; He will respond generously and graciously.

Women preserve the culture of this country with greater tenacity and faith. They keep men on the moral path and inspire them to follow spiritual discipline. Their hearts are tender and full of compassion for the hungry and the distressed. That is why in this land, women are adored and revered.

Elders quote the Shastras that say that the home, where the floor is soaked by the tears of a woman, can never see prosperity. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa took great care to see that Saradamani Devi did not take his simple jokes and ridicules too much to heart, for then she might shed tears. We honor the land where we are born as our "Mother Country", the language we learn on our mother's lap as "mother tongue", and the Scripture that teaches us Morality as "Mother Veda". In this way, every Indian has four mothers, including the mother who gave birth to him. According to Indian Culture, all these have to be adored as Divine.

Those who deny God, the Supreme Will or the First Cause, can give no real satisfactory justification for their stand; nor can those who assert that there is God. Both have to rely on their own experience. After all, how can sweetness be denied by one who refuses to taste sugar? How can one be convinced that sugar is sweet until one tastes it? We have to feel the great marvel of energy, manipulating both, the minutest atom and cell and the vastest, most distant star. How else can we understand the Omnipresence and Omnipotence, except by accepting God as the Architect of the Cosmos?

Follow the call of the Divine arising from the hearts of all living beings. Serve them in an attitude of worship, not expecting something in return. Do not accept even gratitude, having dedicated all your acts to the indwelling God. This will purify you so that you shall be able to listen to the "Soham" that your breath repeats every moment. "Soham" transmutes itself into OM when the distinction between He and I has dissolved itself in the process of 'Samadhi'.

Man is born for the attainment of Joy, not for sheer eating and revelling. Real and lasting joy can be won only by a life led along the path of Dharma which makes the inherent Divinity of man shine forth; illumination is the purpose of life; of the recurring sequence of birth and death. Man has, in him, the spark of Divinity, which is Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent and immanent in entire Universe. In order to become ever aware of this innate Reality, man must learn the technique laid down by the Scriptures, revealed by the same Divinity.

The very first lesson of the primer of the spiritual text is "Control of Speech". Speech is the armament of man; other animals have fleetness of foot, sharpness of claw, fang, horn, tusk, beak and talon. But man has sweetness of speech which can disarm all opposition and defeat all the designs of hatred. Sweetness makes you "Pashupathi" - Divine; harshness makes you "Pashu" - bestial. Mere outward politeness or sweetness is hypocrisy! Sincere speech must flow from real sweetness of heart, a heart full of love. Remove all evil from the Manasarovar, the pellucid lake of your mind, and make it a fit abode of Godhead.

Start from today a new chapter in your life, the chapter of Japam and Dhyanam, Japa-Sahitha Dhyanam or Dhyana Shitha-Japam. In the Tretha Yuga, the Name was Sita-Rama; in the Dwapara, it was Radha-shyama; and in the Kali Yuga, it is Sarvanam, that is to say, all Names of the Lord; you can select any one that appeals to you.

Every man desires to acquire Ananda. From where can Ananda be acquired ? Faith alone can win Ananda. Peace can be got only through faith; faith is the spring of joy. But now we see sorrow, wherever we cast our eyes. Why does this happen ? Because, man has lost faith. He has no faith in himself. How then can he acquire Ananda ? How can a person, who has not got faith enough to live happily for a few days, win the Grace of God ?

Namasmarana is the process by which this dedicatory attitude can be cultivated and confirmed. When confronted by calamity, you must attach yourself to this Sadhana even more firmly instead of losing faith in it and getting slack. The drug should not be given up when it is most needed. The pity is that, when the first disappointment faces you, you lose courage and confidence and give up Rama or Krishna or Sai Baba.

Many of you have problems of health or mental worry of some sort or other. They are mere habits by which you have been brought here, so that you may contact the Grace and strengthen your faith in the Divine. Problems and worry are really to be welcomed as they teach you the lessons of humility and reverence.

Bharatavarsha knew that the secret of Peace lay in service and Love towards all beings. The culture of this land proclaimed that the best form of service is to foster the practitioners of the good life; the sages and the Sadhakas. Do not decry the servants of God; do not obstruct the charity of the generous; do not discourage the study of the scriptures, even if you cannot positively promote any of these; that is the lesson taught in this land.

At present, everyone is after Sukha. The hunt for comfortable jobs and positions of influence, the founding of banks and business houses, the growth of bungalows - all this is evidence of the eagerness to live in happiness. But there is no eagerness to live in Santhi. Sukha is confused with Santhi. Sukha is taken to be the same as Santhi. No one of the rich or well placed or prosperous or powerful has Santhi. You can investigate and find out for yourselves the truth of this. Santhi is not found in the pass book or many roomed bungalows or godowns or iron safes. Your whole attitude is topsy turvy.

Go straight along the path of Karma and Dharma towards Brahma; this is your destiny. Karma has to be done; there is no turning away. Each has his allotted task, according to the status, taste, tendency and earned merit. Do it, with the fear of God and of sin, deep in your heart. Welcome pain and grief; so that you take both success and failure as hammer strokes to shape you into a sturdy Sadhaka. Inner contentment is more important than outer prosperity.

Friendship must serve as lids for the eye, as sandals for the feet. The friend must be "another Me". He must experience, in equal depth, the joy and the grief of the other. Friends must be like milk and water. Let Me elaborate this example. When milk, into which some quantity of water is poured, is placed on a burning stove, the water goes off as steam. The milk laments the separation and boils over. Then, the only way to keep it calm, is to sprinkle a spoon or two of water; its friend is back and it is happy. Milk cannot tolerate separation from its friend.

Your friends today attach themselves not to you but to your purse or to some advantage they can gain through your father's kindness. When your purse is empty or when your father is no longer in power, they bid you good-bye. Friends who drag one away into evil habits and vicious deeds, are prowling around in search of victims.

Be in the world like a maid servant in a rich man's house. The maid servant deals with all the objects and things always knowing that nothing belongs to her and that this is not her true home.

Those who seek to know God must steel themselves to bear insult, injury and torture, with a smile.

We shall be judged not by the creed we profess or the label we wear or the slogans we shout- but by the work, the industry, the sacrifice, the honesty and purity of character. Realize the Heaven within you and all at once all the desires are fulfilled, all the misery and suffering is put an end to. Feel your self above the body and its environments, above the mind and its motives, above the thought of success or fear. The great cause of suffering in the world is that people do not look within: they rely on outside forces."

God is inscrutable. He cannot be realized in the outer objective world. He is in the very heart of every being.

Gemstones have to be sought deep underground; they do not float in mid-air. Seek God in the depths of your self, not in the tantalizing, kaleidoscopic nature. The body is granted to you for this high purpose, but you are now misusing it, like the person who cooked his daily food in the gem-studded golden vase that came into his hands as an heirloom.

Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, but he ignores His presence in himself! Of course, many venture to describe the attributes of God and proclaim Him to be such and such, but these are but their own guesses and the reflections of their own preferences.

Who can affirm that God is this or thus? Who can affirm that God is not of this form or with this attribute? Each one can acquire from the vast expanse of the ocean only as much as can be contained in the vessel he carries to its shore. From that small quantity, he can grasp but little of that immensity.

Like the seven blind men who spoke of the elephant as a pillar, a fan, a rope or a wall, because they contacted but a part and could not comprehend the entire animal, so too, religions speak of a part and assert that their vision is full and total.

"Udyogam Purusha Lakshanam", it is said. Ud-yoga means, as is commonly understood, employment in some job, something that is worth doing. No, it means Ud (Higher) Yoga (spiritual discipline): a Sadhana which mark out (Lakshanam) the Purusha (the man). When Artha is sought through Dharma, the Purushartha deserves the name, 'Paramapurushartha', for it is Parama, oriented towards the Para or the higher eternal values.

In one of his speeches, Nehru had to acknowledge that there is a destiny that shapes events, irrespective of individual efforts. Well, everyone has come to that conclusion sooner or later; for, there is a limit to the capacity of man control events. You may call it Destiny. Another may call it providence; and a third, God. Names do not matter. It is the humility that matters; the wonder, and the sense of awe that matter.

The eye sees because it is illumined by a microscopic spark of the rays of the Sun. "Chakshos Suryo ajayatha". From the eye, Surya was born. The Atma is the motive force of all the senses; the eye is but a window through which the Atma peeps out at the external world. Of what use is the eye, when the vision is not correct ? Samam means Brahmam; Samadrishti means seeing only Brahmam, the one, in all things at all times. This Ekathwam is the basic Truth. All other experiences are partial, distorted, and false.

Education must include the education of the mind of man, of his impulses to hate, to hoard, to fight and to defame. It is not merely the acquisition of certain skills by which the materials found in nature can be reshaped into unity products; it is not merely the acquisition of information about the laws of Nature. It is the process by which man makes the best of his own inner equipment, his Anthakarana, to know himself. It should open his inner eye more than his outer; the outer must reveal the Glory of God; and the inner must reveal the God within.

The optical sense cannot visualize the truth. It gives only false and barren information. For example, there are many who observe my actions and start declaring that my nature is such and such. They are unable to gauge the sanctity, the majesty and the eternal reality that is me.

Children should grow in the awareness of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. If no provision is made for this atmosphere and this teaching, we are denying them their due. Faith in man involves Faith in God; Faith in God creates Faith in man. Without faith, man is creature bereft of roots; and he dries and withers, quickly.

The friends that the child collects at School and around the house have a beneficial or deleterious effect on its growth. Comics, horror-stories, terrorism, gunmen-pictures and cinema posters degrade man into a zero. The child learns to worship money and the things which money can buy; he admires cruelty and cunning, rather than sympathy and love. So the home, the school and the society - have to arouse themselves and take up this challenge posed to the future of this great land.

Man is born with a great thirst and a deep hunger for bliss. He knows that he can get it, but he knows not from where. He has faint memories of his being the heir to the Kingdom of Ananda. But he does not know how to establish his claim to his heritage. Something in him revolts when he is condemned to die, to suffer and to hate. It whispers to him that he is the child of immortality, of Bliss and of Love. But man ignores these promptings and, as one exchanges diamonds for dirt, he runs in search of meaner pleasures and sordid comforts.

I do not care either for praise or for blame. I only pity these people who, in order to scrape together a few paise from the poor, resort to such an filthy tricks. For all who are pained by these subhuman antics, I declare "Even if all the fourteen Worlds unite together, the work for which I have come will not suffer a bit; even if Earth and Heaven combine, My truth can never be fully grasped".

Prayer and Meditation: Prayer makes you a supplicant at the Feet of God; Dhyana induces God to come down to you and inspires you to raise yourselves to Him. It tends to make you come together, not place one in a lower level and the other on a higher. Dhyana is the royal road to Liberation from bondage, though, by Prayer too, you earn the same fruit. Meditation needs concentration, after controlling the claims of the senses. You have to picture before your inner eye the Form on which you have elected to contemplate.

When you see in a house, on the walls of the shrine room, a picture of Mine, do you not feel a wave of reverence and kinship surging within you ? You may not like Him for any other reason, but this picture will bring Him closer to you, though the owner of the house may be your rival in the professional field. So, too, know that every other person has in his heart a picture of the God you revere. Recognize it and reconcile your misunderstandings; close up all gaps with the brothers in pilgrimage, encouraging and inspiring each other along the arduous road.

When the parents have no reverence for God, when the pictures of Stalin and Hitler and Churchill and Lenin adorn the walls of the home, when the child has to breathe the atmosphere of scandal, faction and greed at home, how can it grow into a happy, healthy, balanced individual ? The films that children are taken to see are full of violence and falsehood, mean tricks and conspiracies, which tarnish the springs of sympathy and love.

There are parents who are proud when their children join in card games and even in drinking and gambling; there are parents who get angry when their children read religious books, attend temple rites and sit quietly for a few minutes meditating on the awe and wonder that Creation evokes in them. How can such parents claim to be the well wishers of their progeny ? They are the greatest foes of their progress.

All the twenty-four hours are spent in attending to the care of the body, the prevention of disease, the promotion of health, the development of muscle, etc. No care is spent on the God resident in this physical tabernacle, who has to be recognized and revered. The weighing machine on which you stand to read your weight with pride laughs at you for the silly exaltation. It sneers at your conceit over physical victories; it warns you against too much concern over paltry gains. It knows that death is lying in wait to snatch you away, however, heavy you may grow. Develop 'Drishti' (vision); not 'Deha' (body). Concentrate on the Maker, not the made.

To elevate man to the level of his consciousness, He (God) has to incarnate as man. He has to speak to them in their own styles and languages. He has to teach them the methods that they can adopt and practice. Birds and beasts need no Divine Incarnation to guide them, for they have no inclination to stray away from their Dharma. Man alone forgets or ignores the goal of Life.

I have no desire to have My birthday celebrated. Such trivial thoughts can never enter Me. My only desire is to share My 'Ananda'. My mission is 'Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu'. May all the worlds be happy and prosperous ! Become aware of the unity of mankind. Promote, by Love and Service, the Joy and Contentment of everyone on Earth and fill your hearts with that yearning.

Acts done between dawn and dusk are offerings into the sacred fire of Wisdom. Of such acts, those that are promoted by instinct and impulse are material; they do not arise from a mind molded by the intellect. When the mind is crossed and the outer shore reached, all acts become pure and holy. When deep sleep overpowers the senses, the mind, the intellect, and even the sense of ego disappear. The entire Cosmos disappears from awareness. That is the Truth when the Atma is alone by itself and bondage is naught.

God, or ourselves or Paramatman is praised by man when his desires are fulfilled. When they are not realized, He is blamed. But He has no prejudice or partiality. If He has Love, He must have anger. Any manifestation of these feelings is only superficial and does not rise from the core. God is the witness of the act-consequence chain. You can avoid the consequence, by dedicating the act of God and abstaining attachment.

One's action decides one's destiny. There is no use blaming others for our misfortune and misery. Nor is it right to blame God as being partial or cruelly unconcerned. When You plant a bitter seed, how can the fruit be sweet? It has become the fashion to claim all good as one's own achievement and to ascribe all the despair and disappointment to an irresponsive attitude of Divinity.

I wish to emphasize that purity of the heart, the mind and the consciousness is more important for progress than even Meditation and Prayer. Purity alone can convince you of the Divine within you of the Kshetrajna immanent in the Kshetra. Love all, adore all and serve all. That is the Sadhana of worship, to win purity and earn Grace.

The consequence of the meritorious activities of previous births can be drawn upon now; but unless you have them, no check will be honored. Moreover, only those who have the account can operate. Each must have a separate account in his own name: One brother cannot draw on the account of another brother; and the wife cannot draw on the account of the husband.

Some times, the Bank will give you overdrafts, so that you tide over temporary crisis; the extent of the overdraft is settled by the Manager with reference to your reliability and capabilities. It is like the 'Anugraha', Grace that God will confer on you when you have earned it by 'Sathkarma', 'Sathchinthana', 'Sathsanga', and 'Namasmarana' (good deeds, good thoughts, good feelings and good company), and constant repetition and reflection on the Name of God and the Glory it seeks to express.

When you have attained true wisdom, you will find that good fortune should not be gloated over, nor bad fortune grieved over. The Hero treats both with equal unconcern. They are breezes and storms that cannot affect the depths of the Ocean of Bliss in the heart of man.

People in America, Europe and Africa, Hong Kong and Australia are establishing Sathya Sai Bhaktha Mandalis and Study-Circles; they are having Telugu classes, so that they may listen to Me and learn things directly from Me. As for Me, I have no 'near' and 'far' - all are near to me except those who keep afar. Even they are close to Me, if only they dedicate themselves to God, under whatever Name and Form.

The Ramayana, the Mahabharatha and the Bhagavatha are to be mastered, not allowed to become masters. You go through them without allowing them to go through you! The volumes are bound in silk; and incense sticks are burnt - before them, while man prostrates before them in reverence. But no attention is paid to what the pages proclaim. The frills and fringes attract the mind more than the kernel provided by the text.

Cynical laughter cannot harm the Sadhaka. Can a storm shake the Himalayan range ? Let not your faith in the goal or the road quake before trouble or trial, toil or travail, distress or despair. They are but passing clouds, casting temporary shadows hiding, for a little time, the glory of the Sun or Moon. Do not get distracted by doubt of despondency. Build the mansion - of your life on four firm pillars: Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, the Purusharthas laid down by the ancient sages, each pillar bound strong and safe with every other.

The chief characteristics of Sathya Sai are, let me tell you: equanimity and forbearance (sahana). There are many who are engaged in criticism and calumny. Many papers publish all types of writings. Many pamphlets are printed. All kinds of things happen in the world. My reply to all these are a smile. Such criticism and distortions are the inevitable accompaniments of everything good and great. Only the fruit-laden tree is hit by stones thrown by greedy people. No one casts a stone on the tree that bears no fruit.

Sankaracharya was going along the streets of Varanasi, when he saw in a small hermitage a monk poring over a book of grammar. He took pity on the aging scholar and warned him that, when the end drew near, his punditry will not save him from perdition or take him to the goal of mergence with God. So he asked him to adore God and fill himself with thoughts of the Divine. This is the proper way to deal with life, not frittering it away as a feat of fancy.

The tree will grow with branches on all sides; countless flowers will bloom; it will provide and promote peace and security to the world. In order to realize this result, students must do as roots do: remain firm and provide sustenance. I know that the roots have to be watered so that flowers and fruits may emerge. Students are my all. If you ask Me, what is My property, many expect the answer to be, "Oh ! All this buildings; all this vast areas of land" But, My answer is "My entire property consists of My students". I have offered Myself to them. But many are not aware of this fact. Some unfortunate people cannot believe the Reality of this Love: the Love of a thousand mothers.

The situation in India and in the World today is "Evaniki Vaare, Yamuna theere" (Each for each on the Yamuna beach). There is no togetherness. How happy can man be if he develops togetherness! Can you eat a meal with a single finger? When the five fingers work in unison, the stomach is filled in five minutes ! So, no attachment should be developed; no wish is to be welcomed, nothing is to be sought for; and no defeat is to be taken to heart, without solving deep into the consequences.

Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam
Bhaja Govindam Moodha Mathe
Sampraapthe Sannihithe Kaale
Nahi Nahi Rakshathi Dukrun Karane.

Praise God, Praise God
Praise God, you fool,
When death does knock at door,
Rules of grammar cannot save you.

Shankara exhorted his pupils to disseminate the idea of this verse, and they too, responded with verses on the same lines, each of the fourteen contributing one verse. Shankara gave another twelve of his own, as well as four more verses about the transformation that the teaching would confer. Thus, there are 31 verses in all, in the text called Bhaja Govindam or Moha Mudgaram. The latter name means, "The weapon with which delusion can be destroyed". Each one is a step in the ladder which lifts man into God.

Act according to your professions. Do not play false to yourself and to your ideas. To deny, by your acts, the truth of what you preach is a sign of cowardice and moral suicide. You say that Baba knows and sees everywhere, but you do something wrong in the belief that Baba is somewhere else. You pray to Kali in the idol form, believing it to be alive and you hide something behind the idol, imagining that no one would know about it.

Electricity is found everywhere in Nature but it can be collected, stored and utilized only through certain contrivances designed by man. The spiritual Atma Sakthi that is also everywhere is stored in a body and passed through the thin wires or nerves; it illumines and directs activity. These activities have to be oriented towards Ananda and not attachment to temporary pleasures. The life principle that flows as intelligence through every cell and nerve is also a reflection of the Atma.

One can understand the spirit of renunciation and the depth of tolerance that is inherent in India's noble response. Whoever is afflicted with calamity, at whatever time, under whatever condition, your heart must react without delay in sympathy shown in same practical manner. No one should be condemned as trash; even a little stick can serve as a tooth-pick ! God has not made any man, wholly bad or wholly good; your likes and dislikes are inducing you to label them as such.

The SanyasiSanyasa still clinging to their long-established practices and habits. Instead they must completely break with the past. That is why, in the Gita, Karma Sanyasa and not any other types of Sanyas is prescribed.

Guru Nanak said that, without faith in God, man is blind; Without it, you are a moving corpse - your life might be as grand, beautiful and rich as the Taj Mahal but remember the Taj is but a tomb ! Whatever the method of worship and whichever the Name or Form, it is faith that matters; it is that which gives life and energy for higher things.

I like Puja that is done not for the sake of the individual but for the sake of humanity. By all means, do Puja in order to promote the happiness and peace of living beings. Develop that love for men everywhere. That is My Mission too, My Resolution, My Sankalpa and My Deeksha - the planting of Love in every human heart.

It becomes essential to cleanse the mind through regular Sadhana, to tune the little will to the infinite will of God, so that it becomes merged in His Glory. Scholarship or skill, however deep and varied, have no cleansing power. They only add the alloys of pride and competition. Learned men are not necessarily good, nor are men with spiritual powers over nature above pride, envy and greed. Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi and Prema are the hallmarks of a purified heart, where God is enshrined and is manifest.

Work is for the physical level. Worship for the mental and wisdom for the spiritual. You have to pass through the three stages, each one of you. When I say, you, there are three of you ! The one you think you are - namely the body, the physical person; the one the others think you are, the mental you, your passions, emotions, impulses, attitudes, and beliefs; and the one you really are, namely, the Atma, the Spirit, the real Reality of your Personality.

Instead of transforming his heart, his home, his village, his state, and this world into a Prasanthinilayam, the abode of the peace that passeth understanding, man has made the world an arena for the wild passions of anger, hate and greed. Instead of making the senses (which are, after all, very poor guides and informants) his servants, he has made them his masters; he has become a slave of external beauty, evanescent melody, exterior softness, tickling taste of fragile fragrance. He spends all his energies and the fruits of all his toil in the satisfaction of the trivial demands of these untamed underlings.

Individual efforts and Divine Grace are both interdependent, without effort there will be no conferment of grace. Without Grace, there can be no taste in the effort. To win that Grace, you need to have faith and virtue. You need not praise Him in order to win His Favor.

The character of the children must be made strong and pure. Give them all the confidence and courage they need to become good, honest and self-reliant children. It is not enough if they learn something by which they can make a living. The manner of living is more important than the standard of living. The children must also have reverence towards their religion, their culture, their educational attainments and their country. They must learn well their mother-tongue, so that they can appreciate the great poetical works and epics written by the Seers of their land. This will give them valuable guidance in the stormy days ahead.

Learn to share with others their grief and their joy, do not get jealous when others are happier or when others win prizes or credits in examinations. Emulate their industry, pray for a higher share of intelligence or a sharper memory, but do not give room in your hearts to envy and malice. Envy is a deadly poison, it will contaminate character, ruin health and rob you of peace. Be Anasuyas, unaffected by envy, and you can subdue the Gods of Creation, Protection and Destruction. Like a pest that destroys growing crops, envy enters slyly and spreads quickly. So even in small matters, be vigilant to ensure that you do not fall a prey to envy.

The selfishness fouling your love is veiling divinity from your vision. What is the reason for the selfishness which is veiling divinity from us ? It is simply our attachment to the body; it is the weakness of our mind and our enslavement to our senses.

Use the eyes to watch wholesome things, the feet to proceed to the Home of God, the hands to serve the embodiments of God moving around you as men and the tongue to soothe pain, praise virtue, and glorify God. Do not use your eye to vulgarize your brain and the feet to stand in queue for deleterious movie-shows.

Though the world has become a very small globe, as a result of fast means of communication and transport, man has not yet learnt the art of living together in close proximity as brothers and as children of One God. The closer men are brought, the larger the differences that appear. Thus, the little world is now riddled with problems of conflicting cultures, competing creeds and contesting ambitions. The sorrows of one state spread fast into all its neighbors and infect the whole world. The world has become one vast battle-field.

Most of you are leading a double or triple life: Yogam in the morning; Bhogam the rest of the day; and Rogam at night. You seek Ananda outside you and suffer from the ulcer of desire inside you. You utter one thing with the tongue and carry out the opposite with the hand. You claim to be the seekers of Jnana but you are attached to the delusion that you have cultivated. You have a ticket for Calcutta but you are traveling in the train headed for Bombay. With the body, which is your ticket and Vigna and Vairagya your luggage, you are traveling not in the train which goes Godward but in the train leading to Prakrithi. This is a pity.

The Atma has an eternal festival. It is Anandaswarupa. It is beyond time and so does not calculate the passage of time. How can man celebrate a festival, let Me ask, while he is afflicted by Dehabhranthi, Manabhranthi, Indriyabhranthi and Lokabhranthi? He believes the falsehoods that are called the body, the senses, the mind and the world. He pursues them and tastes joy and grief, and when a certain number of years is passed in the past time, he celebrates a festival.

India is the abode of Sathya, Santhi and Prema; and she has been holding forth these ideals and emphasizing their practice since centuries. Bharath means the land that has 'rathi' or attachment to 'bha' or Bhagavan; it means that the people here are God-loving, not so much God-fearing. If you love God, you have to love man also. This teaching that Sathya is the basis of Dharma which lays down individual and social duties and obligations and that Sathya is also the root of Prema and Santhi - this is the unique feature of Bharath. Sathya is enough, no other God needs to be worshipped.

The task now is install Dharma in every heart, to shed light on every road, through the revival of Vedanta. The world is like a famished person, waiting for a feast; it is like the parched land waiting for rain. I have seen and felt the atmosphere of this land surcharged with discontent and dishonesty. I have seen it from Kanyakumari to the Himalayas: that is the reason why thousands like you seek Darshan, Sparsan and Sambhasan. I am only surprised that thousands are denying themselves that chance.

It is best you stay away from companions who drag you to such distractions that weaken and worry you; spend a few minutes every morning and evening in the silence of your own home, spend them with the highest of all powers that you know of; be in His elevating and inspiring company; worship Him mentally: offer unto Him all the work you do; and you will come out of the silence, nobler and more heroic than when you went in.

There are certain dire possibilities which I want all social workers to guard against. First cleanse your own minds and then start advising others. Earn mental peace and strength for yourself and then try to secure them for others. Learn the secret of lasting happiness yourself and then endeavor to make others happy. Seek the real limb not the artificial limb. Get the doctor who would assure: "hereafter you will not fall ill" and not the doctor who gives some relief only for the present attack.

The greatest instrument by which success can be ensured for all your efforts is Bhakti. That will give health, wealth and prosperity too, for it will eliminate hatred and faction and give more power to your elbow when you plough the land. A man with Bhakti will do every act as worship of the Lord and so the act will be done better and more efficiently, without any maligning and insincerity. It will also win the Grace of the Lord, and so, a Bhakta will be able to raise more crops and enjoy greater health and mental happiness.

We light many candles with the flame of a single candle. But remember only a burning candle can light other candles. An unlit candle cannot light other unlit candles. Only one who has earned wisdom can enlighten others who are in ignorance. One who is himself unillumined cannot illumine others dwelling in the darkness, Maya. One must light his own lamp from the universal light of love and thence forward he can transmit illumination to all who seek and strive. All lamps shine alike since they are all sparks of the Param-Jyothi the Universal Luminosity, that is God.

Bhakti, to be effective, must be regularized through self-discipline; it should not be allowed to grow wild and untended. You rush forward to touch My feet or to prostrate before Me, ignoring the children, the aged and the sick, upon whom you fall when you press forward towards Me. Do not forget the Sai in those people, when you rush forward towards this Sai. The merit of all the hardship you underwent to see and hear this Sai is as good as canceled when you inflict pain on the Sai who resides in them. That plus and this minus add up to zero. In your frenzy to offer homage, you should not forget others who have been waiting long for the chance; you must provide facilities for their darshan.

If divinity is absent, everything is devilry. So teachers and students must have faith in God and boldly call on God. This will drive away the devilry that encompasses us. Of course, hesitation to address God is only superficial. During examinations, every student prays to the Almighty. When calamities happen when loss is sustained and when members of the family are struck by disease and are in mortal danger, people do pray to God ? Why, then, yield to false pride and refuse to acknowledge God. This is sheer hypocrisy.

Transmuting humanity into Divinity is the task allotted to man. Word, thought and deed are instruments for this unavoidable destiny. By unremitting practice, this has to be achieved. The priest in the temple has to ring the bell with the left hand and wave the camphor flame with the right hand : an exercise in manual coordination which comes only as a result of practice. A new priest will use both hands and shake the camphor plate. While the serpent has poison in its fangs and scorpion in its tail, man is capable of inflicting poison through his tongue, eyes, hand and mind. He has to overcome this acquired tendency and remind himself that he is 'Amrithasya Puthra' (the Child of Immortality), conferring sweet nectar and not death-dealing poison.

Man is endowed with many skills; he is offered many lives; he is shown many paths. The purpose of all these gifts is to develop in him the spirit of devotion and dedication and release him from the dual dribble of joy and grief. When man visualizes the Universe as God, its capacity to confer the dual experience disappears; he knows the Truth and is calm. God is One and One only; 'Ekam eve Adhivitiyam Brahma' ('One only, without a second - Brahmam', which is the immanent principle). So one must endeavor to know God, who is Truth.

There is none to question Me if I do not act; there is nothing I would lose if I do not engage in activity. Nor have I any great urge to be active. But, yet, you see Me very active. The reason is I must be doing something all the time, for your sake, as an example, as an inspiration, as a piece of training. Those who are leading must themselves follow; and those who command must themselves carry out what they expect others to do. I am engaged in activity so that you may learn to transmute every minute into a golden chance to enable you to move into Godhood.

If your circumstances do not allow you to partake in Sankeerthana (Bhajans), stay at home and sing the songs alone, in the silent cave of your heart. Do not do so,according to a fixed measure, so many times or so many songs at a sitting. The heart does not calculate in numbers.

I have come for the re-establishment of Dharma and so I always insist on people observing Dharma in all walks of life. Dharma is the inner voice of God. It is the conscience that has shaped itself as a result of centuries of experience and generations of ascetism and austerity; it is the voice of history, warning you against the branch of its command.

For treading the Bhaktimarga, one needs not scholarship, nor wealth, nor riches, nor ascetic rigors. Tell me what was the lineage of Valmiki, the wealth of Kuchela, the scholarship of Sabari, the age of Prahlada, the status of Gajaraja and the attainments of Vidura? - Prema was all they had and it was all they needed. The Grace of the Lord is as the Ocean, vast and limitless. By your Sadhana, your Japam, Dhyanam and systematic cultivation of virtue, this Grace is converted into clouds of Truth, and they rain on humanity as Prema showers, which collect and flow as the flood of Ananda back again into the Ocean of the Lord's Grace.

You have come here to learn and practice detachment. Get wet in the rain, while engaged in serving others. It does not matter, if death comes while serving. do not pause; if you are so determined, God will not allow it to approach you. You complain "Swami has not softened towards me". Well, melt His heart, yearn, show Him the warmth of a repentant heart and of a sympathetic heart anxious to alleviate distress. Through deep detachment, the craving for sensual pleasure must disappear. That will cleanse the Chitha or consciousness. God will then be reflected clear and the Reality can be recognized. This result in Peace and equanimity which is the highest bliss.

The wise will not give place in their hearts to covetousness and possessiveness. They know that there is a 'Kshetragna', who is the motivator of this 'Kshetra'; 'a knower of the field, who is the master of this field'. Vyasa, who collected the Vedas, composed the aphorisms that demarcate the Divine Principle (the Brahmasastram), and wrote the Mahabharatha, reputed to be the fifth Veda, could still not win mental peace. Those were intellectual feats, flights of poetry and philosophy but not flowers that blossomed from authentic experience.

Ideals must become higher and grander. Desires must become more and more selfless and sublime. Attachment must be transmuted into nobler and subtler emotions. The story will be gripping only, when there is steady development towards the denouncement. That is why one passes through the crucible of joy and grief and emerges all the purer and stronger for the experience. When a child's growth is stunted, it causes grief; when the growth is abnormal, it causes grief again.

Who am I ? Every one of you has to know that this question has to worry you sooner or later. And, everyone has to discover the answer. The senses, each specializing in one small field of cognition, are powerless to give the answer; they are at best very inadequate even in their own specialized provinces; there are sounds the ear cannot hear; there are colors the eye cannot take in and interpret to us; and tastes beyond the ken of the buds of the tongue. They are imperfect instruments for the study of the external world. How can they serve to teach us about the intangible, invisible, inner world of the self ? The Vedantic vision alone can reveal to you: "Anoraniyam mahatho maheemyam" - "the smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest".

Dharma is the road for individual and social progress in this world and through this world, to the next. It is external, basic and fundamental. The principles may not be altered or adjusted to suit personal whims or pressing problems that appear formidable to the eyes of some individuals or group of persons. It is like the mother who has to be accepted, not like the wife whom you can choose or discard.

If you can inquire deeply and reason fearlessly , you can appreciate the Indian point of view that, instead of seeking a lower standard of Ananda by feeding the senses, one can get lasting Ananda by training the mind to be ever in the eyes of the cosmic, the universal, the Lord as it is called, when you impose a Name and a Form upon it, to enclose it in your consciousness. Why does man get Ananda, when he contemplates the cosmic and the universal ? Because he himself is the cosmic, the universal.

For treading the Bhaktimarga, one needs not scholarship, nor wealth, nor riches, nor ascetic rigors. Tell me what was the lineage of Valmiki, the wealth of Kuchela, the scholarship of Sabari, the age of Prahlada, the status of Gajaraja and the attainments of Vidura? - Prema was all they had and it was all they needed. The Grace of the Lord is as the ocean, vast and limitless. By your Sadhana, your Japam, Dhyanam and systematic cultivation of virtue, this Grace is converted into clouds of Truth, and they rain on humanity as Prema showers, which collect and flow as the flood of Ananda back again into the ocean of the Lord's Grace.

All hearts are His Property. It is all His Domain, but just as the Zamindar sits only on a clean spot though the entire area may be his, the Lord will install himself only if the heart is cleansed. The Lord has said, "Mad bhaktha yathra Gaayanthe, tatra thishtaami Narada" "Where my devotees sing of Me, there I install Myself". I must tell you that you are luckier than men of previous generations. The accumulated merit of many previous births must have granted you this luck. You have got Me and it is your duty now to develop this relationship that you have achieved by sheer good fortune.

In four or five year's time, you will see Yogis and Maharishis and Munis crowding here and you may not have such chances of asking Me questions and getting the answer, of approaching Me and directly speaking to me. So, do not be like frogs around the lotus, be like the bees. Plantains and mangoes are kept, while yet green, in straw or dried grass or in a closed room so that the heat may make them ripe and tasty. The meditation on God gives you too the right temperature to ripen yourself and become sweet and tasty.

There are seven things that have to be fostered for the welfare of the World: the Cow, the Brahman-ward aspirant or the Brahmin, the Vedas, Chastity, Truth, Non-attachment and Dharma. All these are now fast declining and I have come to restore them in their pristine purity and strength. Do not think that this Sathya Sai Gita was composed by some Bhakta and that he reads it and explains it here. As he said, I am the inspirer and it is for your benefit that he has summarized My Teachings in this way. 'Ekam Sathyam Vimalam Achalam'. It is said that the One Truth is pure and unshakable.

There are now thousands and thousands of education institutions in the world. But, there is a great difference between the rest and those founded by Sathya Sai. The fundamental objectives of Sai institutions are humanity, adherence to discipline and application of what is learned in daily life. If what is learned is not put into practice, the student is like a cow that does not yield milk; a fruit lacking in taste, a book bereft of wisdom. It is not really man's task to stuff his head with transient knowledge and waste time in acquiring it. He should not engage in valueless activities and fritter away years of life. When man ruins himself thus, he descends to the level of the beast. When man uplifts himself, he ascends to the level of God.

You know from the experience of the Cauvery floods, neither status nor castes nor wealth nor even health can help unless you know the simple art of swimming. Need I say that crossing the ocean of Samsara, reaching the other shore of the sea of birth-death, is similarly possible only for those who know the art of spiritual Sadhana. Those who are trying to build the seaman community on a foundation of "Dhana", are building on sand; those who seek to build it on the rock of "Dharma", are the wise.

Dharma Moolam Idam Jagath. Dharma is the root of this world. Obey it and you are happy. The evil man is a coward, haunted by fear. He has no peace within himself. Respect for the parents who started you in life and brought you into this world, together with the vast and varied treasure of experience, is the first lesson that Dharma teaches. Gratitude is the spring which feeds that respect. It is a quality that is fast disappearing in the world today. Respect for the teacher, for the elders and for the wise is on the decline. That is why Dharma is fast disappearing and losing its hold.

Just as the body is the house you live in, the world is the body of God. An ant biting the little toe of your foot is able to draw your attention to the spot; and you react to the pain, making an effort to remove the tiny enemy. You must similarly feed the pain, misery or joy or elation whenever it is evinced in the entire land; you must make an effort to protect the land from the enemy, however remote the place may be where the enemy has presented himself. Be kin with all your kind. Expand your sympathies, serve others who stand in need, to the extent of your skill and resources. Do not fritter away your talents in profitless channels.

The entire epic Ramayana hinges on two women and two passions. Manthara representing Krodha (anger, resentment and vengeance) and Surpanaka representing Kama (lustful passion). Manthara plotted to send Rama into exile and Surpanaka caused the abduction of Sita and the destruction of the Rakshasas as a consequence. The two women are insignificant characters in the story; but the roles they play are key-roles, for they sparked off, by means of the passions they represented, strong chapters of pain and grief. Krodha and Kama are more destructive than atom bombs; but when Rama is installed in the heart, they just fizzle out.

See how the insufferable heat of the sun is controlled and modulated and reduced by your bodily mechanism to the congenial temperature of 98.4 degree F. So, you too should keep the destructive force of your elemental passions born out of the clamor Sabdha, Sparsa, Roopa, Rasa and Gandha rigorously in check and bring it down to tolerable levels, yielding comfort and congenial living. You yourselves create the Maya of which you are the slave. Deny it, a chance to lord over you; it will not harm you.

The most fundamental teaching of the ancient culture of India is Love. For generations, the youth of this land have been exhorted, encouraged and taught, by precept and example, to love the poor, the helpless, the handicapped, the illiterate and the disabled, for, the same spark of Divinity that is in us is also equally evident and active in them. Education must endow man with this compassion and this spirit of service - intelligent, timely and full. That is to say, education must not only inform but also transform.

The mind is like a boulder which the intellect transforms into an image, as a sculptor does. If the intellect allows the senses to dictate the design, the boulder will be shaped into a horrid idol. If, however, the senses are sublimated by the spirit, the image wrought by the intellect will be simply adorable. One must have the mind fully cooperating in the spiritual discipline and not obstructing its progress at every step. Liberation is the goal and the mind must help the pilgrim at every stage of his journey. The mind should not admit any activity that is contrary to Dharma or injurious to spiritual progress.

Om must be recited slowly and slowly with deliberation. The sound must be like an aircraft, first approaching from a distance from a spot where you are and then flying away again into the distance (soft at first but gradually becoming louder and louder and then slowly relapsing into silence, this silence after the experience being as significant as the Pranavas), 'U' is the zenith, the Kailas, reached by the sound in its adoration. 'A' is the initial nadir and 'M' the final.

You must realize that the Divine current that flows and functions in very living being is the one Universal Entity. When you desire to enter the Mansion of God, you are confronted by two closed doors - the desire to praise yourself and the desire to defame others. The doors are bolted by envy; and there is also the huge lock of egoism preventing entry; so if you are earnest, you have to resort to the key of Prema (Love) and open the locks, then remove the bolt and throw the doors wide open.

The day on which Jesus was born is a holy day. He announced himself as the Messenger of God. In fact, all humans are born as Messengers of God. The sole purpose of this human career is to propagate the Omnipresence of God, His Might and Glory. No one has incarnated for merely consuming food and catering to one's senses. Human life is much more precious than that. That is why the capacity to appreciate beauty, truth and goodness has been endowed only on man.

The Brahmin, when born, is just a Sudra; birth does not entitle him to take up the study of this mystery, even if the boy happens to be the son of a great Vedic scholar. It is only when he has been formally initiated by a special ceremony that he can start the study of sacred scriptures. The ceremony makes him a Brahmin; he is then born again into a sacred world of study and responsibility.

My Prema towards the Veda is equaled only by My Prema towards Humanity. My mission, remember is just four-fold; Vedaposhana, Vidwathposhana, Dharmarakshana and Bhaktharakshana. Spreading My Grace and My Power along these four directions, I establish Myself in the Center.

What profit is it for the children to know the length of the Mississippi River or the height of the Vesuvius? Why load them with information they may never require? On the other hand, give them the tonic to strengthen their spirit, the tonic of the Repetition of the Name of the Lord, the tonic of meditating on the Glory of God in the silence of the heart. Formerly, children were learning Rama Nama and the Aksharamala together: "Suddha Brahma Paraathpara Rama". They were taught to read and write. Now, they sing, "Ding dong bell, Pussy is in the well". This type of silly meaningless jargon is spreading everywhere like a poisonous infection, destroying the seeds of peace and joy.

Living becomes a glorious experience only when it is sweetened by tolerance and love. Willingness to compromise with others' ways of living and cooperation in common tasks make living happy and fruitful. Certain modes of behavior have been laid down and proved beneficial by centuries of practice. These have to be observed with modifications to suit the conditions of today. We are developing in each department of life, but it is a pity that we are not developing the unique qualities of human beings. Develop the Atmic awareness, the consciousness of the Divine and the acquisition of Divine attributes. Expand love and understanding.

Without mastery over the inner instruments of emotions, no man can be deemed to be educated. The latent has to be cleansed so that the patent can flourish. Experience is essential for the confirmation of consolidation of what is learnt from books. We do not see any sign in the present educational system. There is no attempt to awaken the Divine in man and awareness of the possibility of rising to the psychic plane.

Education must produce wisdom and moral character. It can be acquired only by hard living and spending days of toil, with no respite even for sleep. But present day education makes those who undergo it mere bonded-slaves to their senses. They do not know how to avoid this bondage, so they revel in envy, greed and egoism. What the country expects and demands from the educated person is, however, that he should set an example of honest labor and light the lamp of knowledge in every home.

Brahman is the cause and Prakrithi (Nature) the effect. Nature is the deluding manifestation of Brahman. It is what can be called Leelavibhuthi or an expression of Glory (Vibhuthi) done as more sport (Leela). When the Leela is perceived as apart from Brahman, it is a false and incomplete perception. The Leela is manifold, Brahman is all. To discover the One in the many is the purpose of human existence. Brahmam is eternal. It is the Nithyavibhuthi, the everlasting splendor. It is named the Kingdom of God. Leelavibhuthi is Prakrithi or Maya or Avidya or nature with deluding, deceptive diversities.

Spiritual health is preserved and promoted by attention to three Gunas: Sathvika, Rajas, and Thamas. Health is preserved and promoted by attention to three humors: Vatha (wind) Pitha (bile) and Kapha (phlegm). Thri-dosha has to be avoided, that is to say, the three humors must not get vitiated or unbalanced. A healthy body is the best container for a healthy mind, illness makes the mind agitated and anxious. The material and the spiritual are the two pans in the balance. They have to be attended to, in equal measure, at least until a certain stage of progress is attained in spiritual development.

We find individuals and groups trudging to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Haridwar in search of peace and prosperity. They also go to Tirupathi and Kaashi. Have they jettisoned even a few of their animal propensities ? That is the test; that is the justification for the money and time they have spent and the troubles they have undergone. When the animal is conquered and Godhead is felt within reach, man can assert that all this pilgrimages are within him. He has no need to travel from temple to temple. And without achieving this victory, you have no right to claim that you are a devotee of Rama or Krishna or of another incarnation of the Lord.

The human body has been given to you for a grand purpose: realizing the Lord within. If you have a fully equipped car in good running condition, would you keep it in the garage ? The car is primarily for going on a journey, to get into it and go. Then only it is worthwhile to own it. So too, with the body, proceed and go forward to the goal. Learn how to use the faculties of the body, the senses, the intellect, and the mind for achieving the goal and march on.

Man must proceed ever towards 'Balam' strength; he should not take to untruth, wickedness and crookedness, all of which denote the fundamental fatal trait of cowardice, 'Balaheenam'. 'Balaheenam' is born of accepting as true a lower image of yourself than what the facts warrant. You believe you are the husk. But really you are the kernel. That is the main mistake. All Sadhana must be directed to the removal of the husk and the revelation of the kernel. So long as you say 'I am', there is bound to be fear, but once you say and feel 'I am Brahmam', 'Aham Brahmasmi', you get unconquerable strength.

I want that you should all build new houses for happy living and install the Lord therein. I do not mean houses of brick and mortar, but houses of good thoughts, good words, good deeds and good company, where you could live calm and collected. Invite Me for the Gruhapravesam of such houses and I shall most readily agree. In fact then, the house is Mine already and I do not need even an invitation to come and enter it. These houses are for worldly comfort; that house is for spiritual joy. And My place of Residence is the pure aspiring heart.

You are going about temple, where God is the innermost shrine. The body is not a mass of flesh and bone. It is a medicine for Manthras - Manthras which save when they are meditated upon. It is a sacred instrument, earned after long ages of struggle, equipped with reason and emotion, capable of being used for deliverance from grief and evil. Honor it as such; keep it in good condition, so that it might serve that high purpose; maintain it even more carefully than these brick-houses and always preserve the conviction that it is an instrument and nothing more. Use it for just the purpose for which it has been designed and given.

It is urgent that every one should inquire into the true, the pure and the permanent; for, there is present a delusion about values. Even the leaders of peoples are hugging the false hypothesis that happiness can be got by means of wealth or health, or housing, or clothing or the cultivation of skills in handicraft and manufacture. The bird sits upon the bough that sways in the storm, confident of its wings, not confident of the bough on which it sits. So, you too should feel strong because of the wings, the wings of Sraddha and Bhakti not because of the bough of the objective World on which you have perched.

You know from the experience of the Cauvery floods, neither status, nor castes nor wealth nor even health can help unless you know the simple art of swimming. Need I say that crossing the ocean of Samsara, reaching the other shore of the sea of Birth-Death, is similarly possible only for those who know the art of Spiritual Sadhana. Those who are trying to build the seaman community on a foundation of 'Dhana', are building on sand; those who seek to build it on the rock of 'Dharma' are the wise.

The six enemies of man are eating into his vitals, embedded in his own inner consciousness. They are the demons to be killed. They are Kama (Lust), Krodha (Anger), Lobha (Greed) , Moha (Attachment), Mada (Pride) and Matsarya (Malice). They reduce man to the level of a demon. They have to be overpowered and transmuted, by the supreme alchemy of the Divine urge. Then the nine nights of struggle will become a new type of night devoted to the purification of the mind and the illumination of the soul, the night described in the Gita as 'the Day of the Worldly'. What is clear and attractive to the ordinary man is uninteresting and unknown to the worldly man. This is the nature of the topsy-turvy world.

In the past Ages, Avatars rid the world of evil, by destroying the few fanatics and heroes who wrought it. But, now, fanaticism and felony reign in every heart. The number of Asuras or evil men is legion. All are wicked to some extent or other. Therefore every one needs correction; and every one has to be educated and guided into the right path. Every being is a pilgrim destined to reach Madhava and merge in Him; but most people have forgotten the road; they wander like lost children, wasting precious time in the bypass.

You cannot have this chance of the nearness of the greatest of all sources of joy in any other place. Here it is so near, so easy to attain and so full of grace. If you fall back, you will seldom get the chance again. Ask and get what will save you, not what will bind you. You ask from Me a thousand things of the world, but rarely do you ask for 'Me'. That is why I seldom address you as Bhaktas; I usually address you as 'Divyatma Swarupulaara', for that is your real Swarupa. This Divyatman is Divinity. Though you do not know it, it is a fact. Therefore, I can address you so, with confidence.

Kurukshetra must be made a Dharmakshetra. Kurukshetra is the field where brothers fought over a handful of earth; but it must be made a field for the uplift of man through the practice of Dharma. It is for the sake of Jnana that Dharma has been laid down. Bhakti and Karma are the two feet; and the head is Jnana; walk on with the help of this two.

Bhakti involves dedication, with nothing held back; not even a wisp of ego should remain. His command alone counts; His will prevails. Like a drunkard, the Bhakta has no sense of honor or decency, pride or conceit. He is a Matha, as Unmatha, a mad person unconcerned with all that is unrelated to his ideal. He is deaf to the call of hunger and thirst; he misses steps in logic and he calculates wrongly while dealing in the marketplace.

When the heart is pure, the Lord is revealed, He is the judge. He cannot be bamboozled. The doctor may assure you that you have no fever, but the thermometer cannot lie. The doctor may say so in order to save you from panic, but the thermometer declares the truth. God knows and God will deal with you as you deserve. Have that faith. Repent for all the wrongs done and resolve not to repeat the mistake; then God will extend His grace.

Good ideas have to be accepted and bad ones eschewed. Each idea has to be judged in the Supreme Court of Viveka (Intellect). And the ruling has to be treated as inviolable. It is in this context that we have to remind ourselves of the prayer of Gandhiji; 'Sabko Sanmathi de Bhagavan', 'O, God bestow the right understanding on all'.

You are the citizens of no mean land. Bharath is indeed a Divya Bhoomi: a land saturated since the ages with devotion and dedication to God, the path to God was sought for by even the common folk; and spiritual discipline permeated every activity of life and every detail of daily life. You are the inheritor of a great culture, which has survived the onslaughts of alien rule and political suppression.

Is the universe real ? Is it relatively unreal ? This problem has been agitating man since ages in all lands. The realists and the idealists have argued on their explanations for centuries. The scientists or realists believe that the Universe is a conglomeration of atoms in varying patterns which have assumed manifold forms and names. But this is only partially true. The Vijnana Vedins (the spiritually oriented) point out to the Dhoatik Vedins (the materially oriented) that a firm base is essential for all these transformations to happen. The Universe must have a basic force or energy or phenomenon as basic as clay is to the pot. That fundamental principle is, according to them, the Atma.

The human body is a temple-chariot; the Atman is installed therein and is dragged by emotions, impulses, passions and urges, along the streets of desire. Success and failure, joy and grief, gain and loss, are the dancers who accompany the procession of life. Here, too, many pour their attention only on the chariot, its height, its decoration and its progress. Many others are concerned with the dance of durabilities the pain and pleasure due to that is part of the procession. Few pay attention to the Atman, the crown and consummation of human existence.

Why is man so pathetically afflicted today with fear and anxiety ? Are we to search for the reason outside us or do they live within us ? The reason lies in the false emphasis we have laid on things of the material world, ignoring things of the spirit. The body that man bears is essentially the receptacle of God. It is a temple where God is installed and where God is the Master. It does not deserve all the attention you know pay to fulfill its whims. It is equipped with very valuable instruments which can help you in the journey but which you seldom use.

Many are affected by the problem of what caused the Cosmos. How did it come into being ? They advance various theories and lay down many opposing hypotheses. But there is no need for seekers to beat about the bush so much. Just as a dream results when one is cut off from reality in a state of sleep, the Cosmos is a result of being cut off from Reality, by Maya, in a state of ignorance. It is difficult to discover laws that explain or govern its infinite mysteries.

Good deeds, like Puja, Japam, Dhyanam, the observance of vow etc., are 'steps'. Good thoughts, like prayer for greater discrimination and more chance to help others, also help. They slowly and steadily cleanse the mind, sharpen the intellect, purify the senses and win grace.

The Lord is described in the Purusha Suktha as "thousand-headed". It does not mean that He has just a thousand heads, no more, no less. It means that "the thousand of heads - before Me - now have just one heart, which gives life and energy to all and that heart is the Lord". No one is separate from his neighbor. All are bound by the one life-blood that flows through the countless bodies. This is the special teaching of Sanathana Dharma, which the World needs.

The Lord has endowed man with the body, and so, every limb and every sense is worthy of reverent attention. Each must be used for His Glory. The ear must exult when it gets a chance to hear the wonderful tales of God. The tongue must exult when it can praise Him. Or else, the tongue of man is as ineffective as that of frogs which croak day and night sitting on the marshy bank.

You must devote sometime regularly for study and for Sadhana. Now you are wasting time till late at night, in clubs and frivolous company. A portion of that time, if spent with God, can confer valuable results. This Motherland has given you a culture that is attracting distracted people from all parts of the world. Be grateful, study the culture and practice the disciplines it lays down. Serve the poor and the helpless and those who eke out their livelihood by hard work.

Today, we have factions everywhere at home between husband and wife, in the school between teacher and the pupil and in society between group and group. This is deterioration indeed. Peace and harmony between members of the same family are the foundation for peace in the land. The individual must be at peace with himself. The coordinated effort of all the organs of the body is essential for a healthy life.

Before every Incarnation, two collaborators for the task on which the incarnation comes, also appear Mayasakthi and Yogasakthi. Maya comes, as the elder sister, to warn the wicked; Yoga comes, as the elder brother, to enthuse and keep constant company. Maya thrusts Kama deeper and deeper into perdition, so that his downfall will be more terrible.

When some one sitting near you is immersed in sorrow, can you be happy ? No, it may be that a baby weeps within hearing, most pathetically. You will get tears in your eyes in sympathy. Why ? There is an unseen bond between the two. Man alone has the quality of sympathy. He alone can be happy when others are happy, and miserable when others are miserable. That is why he is the paragon of creation and the acme of animal advance. Man alone is capable of seva; that is his special glory and unique skill.

The only Message, the only lesson I can impart to you today is to remind you of the great traditions of Bharath and ask you to spread Love throughout the length and breadth of this great Land. Then India can again be the spiritual leader of humanity and fill the whole World with Divine Love.

Feel happy that this is your mother country; love of the country is the basis on which you can build love for the world community. Love expands; it does not limit itself to boundaries. Love your mother-tongue; then you will discover that all languages are as sweet as yours, for, a language is as sweet as the tongues of the speakers.

Strive to move away from Untruth towards Truth; attempt to acquire knowledge of yourself and of the origin of all selves and thus shed your fundamental ignorance. Move away from the thoughts and anxieties about this body subject to decay and death, and become aware of the immortal soul, which you really are.

Who is the real resident of the body ? You are the positive aspect that is activating the negative aspect, the body. The life-breath repeats Soham, everytime you breathe. It means: "I am He, I am God"! What a profound authentic declaration the breath is making every moment of your life while waking, dreaming or in a deep sleep, whether you listen to it or not! If this simple lesson, this Truth which is being dinned all the twenty-four hours of the day, does not alert you or inform you of your real task, how can you understand your reality by the mere study of books.

Do not get involved with borrowed ideologies, imported fashions or attitudes or apparels and exciting notions social behaviour. Youth, today is ruined by this fascination for the false. Borrowed ideas cannot fit into the pattern of our culture. Sanathana Dharma is the culture that has grown on this soil and is best suited to maintaining peace and joys. You cannot shine in borrowed feathers for long. They can give only temporary delight. So, do not distort or disfigure your culture by limitation or neglect.

I am neither a Sastravadin nor a Budhivadin. I am a Premavadin. So I have no conflict with either the scholar who adheres to texts or the devotee of reason. Both have their good points as well as their limitations. If you acquire Prema, then you can dispense with the Shastras, for the purpose of all the Shastras is just that: to create the feeling of 'Sarvajnana Samaanaprema' equal love for all; and to negate egoism which stands in the way.

Pilgrimages too are for elevating the heart, sublimating the impulses and leading the lower self to higher levels of thought and action. Reason serves the same purpose, or at least, it ought to. Reason seeks to know the unity of the universe, the origin and goal of all it all, the laws that govern the anu and brhath, the microcosm and the macrocosm, and it peeps behind the over-recording curtain to get a glimpse of the 'Suthradhara', who pulls the strings.

Just as you tend the body with food and drink at regular intervals, you must also tend to the needs of the inner Atmic body by regular Japam and Dhyanam and the cultivation of virtues. Sathsanga, Sath Pravarthana and Sath-Chinthana are all essential for the growth and the health of the inner personality. The body is the Bhavanam of the Bhavaneswara, His Bhuvanam. In so far as you are particular about coffee or tea at regular intervals, be also particular about Dhyanam and Japam at fixed times for the health and liveliness of the spirit.

It is here in India that there is a mine of Spiritual Wisdom and Spiritual Treasure. The Dharsanas, Upanishads and Gita and the Vedas have to be distributed, pure and unsullied, guaranteed in value and quality, to eager aspirants everywhere. We have had a succession of Sages and Saints. On account of the teachings and the lives of these people, there is a vast field of Spiritual virtue in this Land, which needs only a little more care to yield a rich harvest.

You must each one try to become ego-less; and then the Lord will accept you as His Flute. Once when a number of people were asked by Me what they would like to be in the hands of God, I got various answers. Some said the Lotus; some the Sankha; some the Chakra; but no one mentioned the Murali. I would advise you to become the Murali, for the Lord will come to you, pick you up, put you His lips and breathe through you and, out of the hollowness of your heart due to the utter absence of egoism that you have developed. He will create captivating music for all creation to enjoy.

It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief. If you look upon nature and all created objects with the insight derived from the inner-vision, then attachment will slide away, though the effort will remain. You will also see everything much clearer and with a glory suffused with Divinity and splendour. Close these eyes and open those inner eyes and what a grand picture of essential unity you get. Attachment to nature has limits but the attachment to the Lord that you develop when the inner eye opens has no limit. Enjoy that reality, not this false picture. The Lord is the immanent power in everything.

You have to carry on certain processes of thought and action in order to get to the hard core of faith that this world is a funny mixture of Sathya and Asathya, that is Mithya in fact. The Divine Life does not admit of the slightest dross in character or delusion in intellect. So people dedicated to it, must emphasise this by precept and example. Wipe out the root-causes of anxiety, fear and ignorance. Then only can the true personality of man shine forth. Anxiety is removed by faith in the Lord; the faith, that tells you that whatever happens is for the best and that the Lord's will be done.

You are all Sath-Chith-Ananda Swarupas; only, you are unaware of it and imagine yourself to be this individual or that, and subjected to this limitation or that! This is the myth that must be exploded in order that Divine Life may start. It is the Divine that inspires, activates, leads and fulfils the life of each being, however simple or complex its physical structure may be. From the 'Anu' to the 'Brahath', every single entity is moving towards the estuary where it merges in the sea of Bliss.

The Guru has very often to tell you that you have forgotten your real name or that you have lost the most precious part of yourself and yet are unaware of the loss. The Guru is the physician for the illness which brings about the suffering of alternate birth and death. He is an adept at the treatment needed for the cure. If you do not get such a Guru, pray to the Lord Himself to show you the way and He will surely come to your rescue.

When the sun is over your head, there will be no shadow; similarly, when faith is steady in your head, it should not cast any shadow of doubt. When man loses his way and strays into the wilderness believing that he is the body or Gunas or the object, then the Avatar comes to warn and guide. Keep the faith in the Lord undiminished, you can than safely move about in the world. No harm can come to you.

Husband and wife are like two pieces of wood, drifting down a flooded river, they float near each other for sometime and, when some current comes between, they are parted, each must move on the sea at its own rate and in its own time. There is no need to grieve over the parting of the two. It is the very nature of Nature that it should be so.

Divine family exists in peace and concord. Siva has snakes on His arms, on His Head and around His waist; one of His sons, Kumara, rides on a Peacock, which attacks snakes; another rides on a mouse, which the snakes feed on. One son has the head of an elephant, which whets the appetite of the lion, which is the vehicle used by Durga, the consort of Siva, who is so inseparable that She is the left half of the body of Siva Himself. Nor is the lion friendly by nature to the bull, which Lord Siva Himself has as His vehicle ! Siva has fire on the central part of His brow, and water, the river (Ganga), on His head, incompatible both. Imagine how loving and how co-operative the various components have to be, to render life on Kailas smooth and happy.

Carry to every door the name of God and let the clouds be illumined by love and reverence. Let every street in the towns, every village in the State ring with the adoration of the Almighty; every sunrise sing of Rama, Eswara and Krishna - any name is effective, provided it is suffused with the Divine Essence. Love the branches, twigs, leaves, flowers and fruits. They may appear to be different in color, feel, taste, smell etc., but they all are products of the earth, drawing sustenance from the soil and the sun. Live together in love; live in peace; and live in service.

When clouds gather in the sky, lightning illuminates the clouds; similarly, wisdom must illuminate education. The word of Sai is the path of Truth. Smaller than the smallest atom; bigger than the biggest thing. Witness of everything, the Atma is Brahmam and Brahmam is Atma.

Bamboo is valued for its form and strength and beauty. Similarly the real worth of man lies in his intelligence. His intelligence has come to him over many lives and the real value of his Buddhi is to practise Thyaga or renunciation. But one's Buddhi is covered by illusion, which is only a reflection of the Truth. When we throw away the water in the pot, we throw away the reflection of the sky in it as well. The reflection of Truth in our minds is only the conglomeration of our desires.

Bad thoughts and habits, bad company and bad food are hostile grounds where disease thrives. 'Arogya' and 'Ananda' go hand in hand. A sense of elation and exultation keeps the body free from ill health. Evil habits, in which men indulge, are the chief cause of disease in the physical as well as the mental state. Greed affects the mind; disappointment makes man depressed. Man can justify his existence as man only by the cultivation of virtues. Then he becomes a worthy candidate for Godhood.

Any one may blame you; but you should ignore all such blame and go forward in doing service without rancour. Service is your only duty. The Universe is a manifestation of God. So also the individual. All these three are like: Brahma, Vishnu, Maheswara - the Trinity. Actually there are no three, they are one - it is the unified Godhead. Cherishing this thought of Oneness and serving the society is true Adhyamtic or spiritual life.

You should take to "Sarvada, Sarvakaleshu Sarvatra Harichinthanam". It is just not sufficient holding a mala and doing Japa, once in the morning during Brahma Muhurtha time, once in the afternoon and once in the evening. All the twenty-four hours, you should be in the remembrance of God. You should all the time be striving to awaken the spirit within you and for its blossoming (Atma Vikas). This is the real purpose of life.

Man has in him vast resources of power. When he does not utilise them while discharging his duties to himself and to the society which sustains him, he is only becoming a target for ridicule. When you are on a railway station platform waiting for the train that is due, and when you come to know that it arrives five hours late, how do you react ? You fling abusive words at train. When the coaches receives from you such treatment, how much worse treatment you deserve for not fulfilling your duty and for disappointing the expectations that you have raised by your being a man? Utilise your skills and learning as consistently and effectively as duty demands.

Mohammed preached monotheism and was driven out of Mecca. Jesus preached mercy and charity and he was charged with treason. Harischandra refused to give up his allegiance to Truth and was driven to such straits that he had to sell as slave his wife and son. So, when you stick to the path of Truth and Righteousness, pain and poverty haunt you. But they are only clouds passing through the sky, hiding for a little time, the splendour of the Sun.

The motherland is not a mere lump of earth. When we desire its progress, we have to promote the progress of the people who dwell therein. The skill needed for resuscitating and reforming man are found only in students. The reforming process involves the removal in daily living of bad conduct and bad habits and the practise of good conduct and good deeds. A man's worth can be measured by his efforts to reform himself. This day, the Government has no authority to reform the people; and the people have no authority the reform the Government.

The Pranava is the essence of all sustenance, the embodiment of Rasa. Of the earth, water is the Rasa; Of the water, physic (Oshadi) is the Rasa; of the Physic, the human person is the Rasa; Of the human person, the word is the Rasa; of the word, RuK is the Rasa; Of the RuK, Sama is the Rasa; Of the Sama (Veda), OM is the Rasa. These eight Rasas, the earth, water, physic, person, word, RuK, Sama and OM lead to the ninth - Ananda (Bliss). These are the Navaratnas, the nine essences, the nine sustainers; and Ananda is the goal which man is seeking, the aim of human life.

The A of AUM is the Viswa; the U is Tejas; and the M is Prajna - There is another interpretation in the scriptures. Viswa is the Walking; Tejas is the Dream; Prajna, the Deep Sleep stage. The Pranava Sadhana (the spiritual exercise of meditation on OM) is therefore very important for Seekers. The Vedas prescribe the repetition of the Pranava, while studying holy texts reciting the Name of the Divine, carrying out daily duties and offering gifts.

You have a Kalpavruksha ready to give you all that you want; you have the Lord, who protects and promotes all. The virtues of the people are treasures of the State; the Smarana of the Name of the Lord is the root of all virtues. Narada, who was afflicted with conceit that there was no other who had dedicated his very breath to the recital of the Name, was once humbled to find that a ryot who managed to repeat the Name three times in the course of his overwhelming multitude of distressing preoccupations from cock-crow to dusk was judged a great Bhakta.

Paramatma reveals its glory in man; Prema appears in various forms, attaching itself to riches or parents or children or one's life mate or friends. All these are sparks of the same flame and the love of the universal is its highest expression. This Prema cannot be cultivated by reading essays, guide-books and made-easies and learning the steps by note. It has to begin with great yearning for the Light and an unbearable agony to escape from the darkness as in the prayer: "Thamasomaa Jyothir Gamaya". The yearning itself will draw the light. The Love will grow of itself, and by its own slow alchemy, turn you into God.

Because you have taken residence in this body, you cannot call the body "I". When you sit here in this Hall, you do not call the Hall "I". You know, you are separate and that you are here only temporarily. When you go about in a tonga, you do not say that the tonga is you, do you ? You do not take the tonga inside, when you step down from it on reaching home. So, also, you have to drop this body when you reach "home".

You must cultivate non-attachment towards Prakruthi and attachment to the Lord. I am reminded of the story of Sankara Bhatta. He was a great Sadhaka intent on Japa and Aagama to such an extent that he was reduced to skin and bone. He worshipped Saraswathi or Vidya which is the key to open the doors of Mukti. Goddess Lakshmi saw his sad plight and was moved with great pity. She chided Saraswathi for denying Her votary even the common joys of life and Herself hid in his leaky hut to pour on him Her Grace. She offered him plenty and prosperity, fame and fortune. She derided Saraswathi for neglecting to award comfort and joy on Her hapless servant. But Sankara Bhatta turned a deaf ear to her allurements; he said politely, but firmly, 'No, Saraswathi has blessed me with the most precious wealth, the gift that liberates me. I do not crave your Grace. Please remove yourself from my presence'.

Jewels give joy, not Gold. You can experience the Name, you can imbibe the Form; you can take them to heart and dwell upon them and fill yourself with the joy that they evoke. That is why Jayadeva, Gomanka, Ramakrishna and others wished to remain ants, tasting sugar rather than becoming sugar itself. The Name is like the seed, implanted in your heart; when the shower of His Grace falls upon it, it sprouts into a lovely tree. All trees, that sprout from the Name, are equally lovely and shady.

Manava can become Madhava by engaging himself in Madhava Karma; he can then discover his 'Narayana - Tatwam'. What is the use of doing only Manavakarma; or even Danavakarma and claiming that man is divine ? Virtue is the lifebreath, and character is the backbone. Without these, no meritorious act will fructify. A characterless man is like a pot with many holes, useless for carrying water or for storing it. Renounce and win Peace.

How far have you progressed using the chance of these Discourses and the Darshan and Sparsan? Bring something into your daily practice, as evidence of your having known the secret of higher life from Me. Show that you have greater brotherliness, speak less, with more sweetness and self-control, and that you can bear defeat as well as victory with calm resignation.

While speaking of God, as guarding you, I am reminded of a note that some one has sent Me from this gathering. The note wants Me to explain why I have not mentioned Sai Baba in any of my Discourses so far, though I bear the name as the Avatar of Sai Baba. Evidently, the writer of the note had in mind the people who engage themselves in publicity-work of Rama or Krishna or Sai Baba.

The aeroplane has to land at a certain place in order to take in those who have reserved the right to fly by the tickets that they have purchased. So too the Lord has to come down so that those who have won the right to be liberated may be saved. Incidentally, others, too will know of the Lord, of His Grace and ways of winning it and of the joy of liberation. There are some who deny even today the possibility of air-travel; they curse the contrivance. They cavil at it. Similarly there are many who cavil at the Avatar that has come to save them.

Your minds are wayward like monkeys that skip and jump from branch to branch. Give them to Me. I can make them steady and harmless. When I say, 'Sit', they will sit; when I say 'Stand', they stand. That is what Sankaracharya offered to do; he told Siva that he would hand over the monkey that was his mind to Him so that it might be tamed and used for his delight. But it must be a complete handing over with no reservations.

Man comes into the world, burdened with Maya and its instrument, the mind. The mind expresses itself through attraction and repulsion, Raga and Dwesha, affection and hatred, towards the external world. Raga is Rajasic in its effect and it can be used for one's uplift, as Narada used it to fix attention on the Lord. Dwesha is Thamasic as Durvasa expressed in his dealings with Ambarisha and others. Without Raga and Dwesha, the mind cannot function at all. If these two are removed, there can be no mind, and no Maya; and you get fixed in Jnana.

The study of the Vedas is the highest type of learning, since it leads to the conquest of death. All other studies deal with the means of living or the surroundings within which you have to live; they deal with earning and spending, deriving a little pleasure by this trick, escaping a little grief by that other trick. The Vedas show the path of the realm of eternal Bliss, where there is no birth or death. People learn details about China, Russia and America; they know about the volcanoes of the Pacific or the islands of the Arctic regions; but, they do not know an iota about the features of their own inner realms.

The Karma Kanda is the biggest part of the Vedas, because Karma or sanctified activity is the means by which the tree blossoms and the fruit matures and grows. The Upasana Kanda deals with Upasana, the method by which the fruit ripens, the Jnana Kanda describes Jnana, the process by which the fruit fills itself with sweetness. The first stage takes the longest time. So, it comprises the largest portion; the second and the third are quicker by comparison. So they are shorter. The third stage can be accomplished, even apart from the tree by keeping in a warm place amidst straw or a hot room.

Man can acquire the sweetness of Jnana by keeping himself in Sathsang or even by remaining in a solitary place, all by himself, by Dhyana, for example. But, by whatever means, the sweetness (Jnana) cannot be injected from outside; it must grow from within, it is the transformation of the inner nature won by a struggle with the inner foes.

Just think of this for a while. You are in this body, in this receptacle, in order, to realise the God you really are. This body is the cocoon you have spun round yourselves, by means of your impulses and desires. Use it while it lasts, to grow wings so that you can escape from it. You came into this world crying, announcing your grief and being thrust into it, grief for having lost hold on God. Having come with grief, decide not to go with it from here. Get rid of it in this life itself.

Become entitled to the honored title of Bhakta. My Glory is spread daily through who those call themselves My Bhaktas. Your virtue, your self- control, your detachment, your faith and your steadfastness are the signs by which people read of My Glory. Not that I want any such prop. But, it just happens so, in this world, where men estimate others indirectly, rather than directly. Let me tell you, such Bhaktas are very rare. That is the reason why I do not address your gathering as "Bhaktulara". You can lay claim to that name only when you have placed yourself in My hands, fully, completly, and with no trace of ego kept back to cater to your vanity.

All ills are traceable to faulty living. And what is that traceable to? The ignorance of one's real nature. Ignorance is so deep-rooted that it affects thoughts, words and deeds. The drug, that can cure it, is presented under different Names: Jnana,Karma, Upasana and Bhakti. They are all the same in potency and curative power. The difference lies only in the method of administration: either as a mixture or as a tablet or by injection.

This Nilayam should not be treated with scant reverence. Make the best use of your stay here. Do not treat this chance lightly. You come spending much money and you have put yourselves to much trouble to reach here; but you do not bloom as fragrant offerings at the Lord's feet by learning the Sadhana path. The senses have to be curbed into obedient servants of the spirit. For example, I insist on silence. Talk less; talk low, when you must talk; do not thrust your sorrows, your needs, and your problems into the ears of those who come here with their own bundles of such things.

In this Prasanthinilayam, there are certain limits laid down, certain modes of spending time usefully, recommended by Me. All who come here, whether long time residents or new arrivals, have to observe them. You have seen Me and stayed here, and heard the Discourses. Let me ask: What is the gain ? Are you going back unchanged, unaffected ? Dogs do not chew sugarcane; they seek a bone instead. Ill-fated mortals recoil, when the talk is about God, Goodness, Sadhana and Saakshathkara. But you must pull yourselves away from slums and by lanes and travel on the highway to God. Dwell always on the Glory of God; then you will shine in that Glory. Adhere to Truth, that is the surest means of removing fear from your heart. Prema can grow only in the heart that is watered by Truth.

The Shastras warn you of false steps; they console you in times of stress; and they strengthen you in distress. They give correct interpretations of moral dilemmas. They prescribe the dress, the food, the manner of speech, the methods of social conduct, the mode of mutual behaviour and the lines of onward march. They are the conscience of society.

The whole world knows what sacred ideals inspire the Sathya Sai Organisations. It is true that, in a big bag of rice, a few grains of sand may get in. Any human organisation is bound to have a few black sheep. But, that will not affect the organisation, as long as it is true to its principles. The kind of service and sacrifice, which the Sathya Sai Organisations are rendering, is colossal. The basis for all that is the Love that prevails among the members. From ancient times, the Upanishadic prayer said "Sahanaa Vavathu; Sahanaa Bhunaktu" "May He protect us all; may He nourish us all". The spirit of Oneness proclaimed in this Manthras is operative today only in the Sathya Sai Organisation.

Sanathana Dharma is bound to overcome today's rampant materialism, for it can harmonise the secular and the spiritual, into a single way of life. It can bring together into closer kinship both man and God. It is based on the Divine which is the reality of the Self. So, it is not limited to one country, one individual, one period or one set. It has a variety of procedures, point of view, disciplines and guidelines, in accordance with the special features of the region, the age, and the environment.

The scripture says: "Happiness cannot be won through happiness". "Na Sukaad Labhyathe Sukham" : "Happiness can be won only through misery." Pleasure is but an interval between two pains. To achieve the Sathwik happiness, that is positive and permanent, man must perforce take on trials and tribulations, loss and gain.

The human body is the home of countless microbes and other parasitic beings. No one can be free from these diseases inducing causes. But, one can easily overcome this sorrow, by developing feelings of compassion towards all beings and thoughts which thrive on Love and which spread Love. Illness, both physical and mental, is a reaction on the body caused by the poison in the mind. An uncontaminated mind alone can ensure continuous health.

Faith is the basis of every act. You do not run away from the barber because he is armed with a sharp razor. You place faith in him and allow him to cut your hair, quietly submitting to his idiosyncrasies. You give away costly clothes to the dhobi, since you have the faith that he will return them washed and ironed. You have faith in the driver of your car and in the engineer who built your house. So, too, believe in the inner Motivator, the Atman within, the voice of God.

The awareness of the Atman or the Divine in man can neither be gifted to another nor be accepted from another. It is, all the time, hidden behind the veil of ignorance. When the false image disappears the Truth shines in all its glory. It is like the sun behind the passing cloud. Your duty is to draw this veil and let the sun of awareness shine forth and illumine your thoughts, words and deeds.

Active participation in society, in a spirit of dedication and surrender, conceiving all acts as worship and all men as the embodiments of the Supreme, is a more beneficial form of Sadhana. For, there is no spot where He is not, no object which is not He. For, as the Sruthi declares, He willed that He becomes all this. Worship, adoration, and pilgrimage cannot be the end-all? The goal is the realization of "I am He, He is I". That alone can fill the heart with Bliss.

Man must withstand both praise and blame, success and failure, pleasure and pain, like the Meru mountain peak. He must strive to be steadfast and unmoved. Once you collect desire, you become their slave; you will find no end to them. When they are attained, others assail you and still leave you discontented. Be aware of your innate Divinity and show these recurring desires their due place. The Atma in you is unaffected by desire or defeat or victory. They are passing clouds.

Sense control will guard you against a host of evils. Do not believe that, because you are equipped with the senses, nothing harmful can happen. Through their free exercises, you may have your car registered in your name and be driving it yourself, but, if you do not apply the brakes timely, accidents are bound to be your lot. Your body can be compared to a car. Your eyes are like lights. Your stomach, the petrol tank; your mouth, the horn; your mind the steering wheel; Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, the wheels; the air within the tyres is faith; and intelligence or Buddhi, the switch.

The knowledge derived through the mind utilising the senses is always incomplete, but, the knowledge that is earned through the Buddhi or intellect illuminated by the Atma, is full, freeing and revealing the Truth. The first is termed 'Manojnana' and the second 'Atmajnana'. 'Manojnana' informs that you are distinct from others; that God is at Kailas, Tirupathi or Kasi; or Prasanthinilayam. But names, forms and temples are only for the kindergarten stage.

The prayer that rose from millions in this country from all its temples, theerthas, holy seafronts, shrines and altars for centuries has been, "Sarve Janaah Sukino Bhavanthu" - "Let all the people of the World be happy and prosperous"; "Samastha Lokaah Sukino Bhavanthu" - "May all the worlds have peace and prosperity". So pray for all humanity, for the welfare and happiness, the peace and progress of Russia, China, Africa, Pakistan and all the countries of the world and all beings everywhere.

Man has all the resources he needs himself. He can tap them by identifying them and manifesting them and by sharing them with others. He is Sath-Chith-Ananda; he is Siva-Sakthi Swarup, matter-energy. When man extols himself, he is extolling God. Do not cultivate the conviction that you are mere men; be assured that you are destined for Divinity. When Divinity takes on the human form, as described in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavatha, one has to interpret the actions as providing examples and lessons and not as human stories enacted for entertainment.

We have at present persons who pride themselves on their encyclopaedic scholarship and technical skills; they claim to know the innermost secrets of nature; they fly into outer space and even land on the moon. But, ask them if they have 'Ananda' and can stay in 'Ananda'; they will reply that they have not yet experienced it. If they know everything worth knowing, why have they missed this? It is clear that they are suffering under some delusion.

Be eager to confer consolation and courage; be anxious to be of help. Watch for the chance. Snatch each opportunity to expand yourself by sympathy, to enlarge the horizon of Love by understanding and prayer. Do not keep another at arm's length, saying "My God is different from yours" or "My God is opposite to yours". It can never be so. Paramatma, the Name for God, does not mean a stranger God but the Supreme God. Who can vouchsafe for the correctness of the picture which you now worship as the picture of Rama or Krishna ? The poet described and the painter delineated, but, both rely on their imagination, rather than on actual authentic vision.

Cynics question the validity of the type of adoration and say that it will only confirm faith in a superstition. "Can God be a stone, or a peace of paper ?" they ask. This attitude is not correct. By adhering to the traditionally laid down ritual worship many aspirants have attained the vision of the Omnipresent and stayed in that incommunicable Bliss.

In fact, Puja (formal worship at regular hours), with the recitation of hymns and songs, is the very first step in the spiritual pilgrimage. Many seekers have undoubtedly achieved an awareness of God by years of asceticism among jungle caves. But, starting early with scrupulous care, the rites of archana, bhajana and aradhana (offering of flowers with the repetition of God's Name, singing His Glory and adoring Him as a living presence) are more fruitful and satisfying.

The sixteen modes of worship laid down in the Shastras to make the aspirant aware of that he is the very presence and that every gesture and movement of his has to be motivated by devotion and dedication, ensure the purification of the mind of man from ego and all its brood of blemishes. This is 'Chittha Suddhi', the cleansing of all levels of one's consciousness.

Puja or archana offered, without a purified heart is sheer waste of time. But even a short sincere session of Puja, spent in Divine Awareness, yields much fruit. Thiru Thondar, a Tamil Saint, confessed that he had engaged himself in worship of the Lord's idol in order to cleanse his mind. The material and the form are inseparable, but the seeker must dwell on the Form which he desires to be manifested in all its glory rather than on the material.

Technology must be dedicated to the promotion of high ideals, those which are cherished in Bharathiya culture. For, without the background of the culture, educated people are easily turned into slaves of other cultures. Those who belong to a country have to proceed along the special circumstances and resources of the country. Of course, one must love all mankind; all are children of God. One must not emphasise the differences between nations or between castes and creeds, cultivate universal heartfelt Love.

The five Pandava brothers are five qualities in human character, all observing the norms set by the eldest, which is the noblest and the most righteous. Rama is the example of uncompromising adherence to the principle of righteousness, whatever be the temptation to bypass it. Rama was charged with love that transcended all considerations of advantage and of caste or creed and extended to animals and birds, human and subhuman beings. Love is the key to open the doors locked by egoism and greed.

What exactly is implied by 'Adhyatmic' ? Is Bhajan or congregational prayer 'Adhyatmic' ? Or does it involve 'Japa' or 'Dhyana' ? Or does it denote religious rituals and ceremonies ? Or does it extend to pilgrimages and holy places ? No. These are only beneficial acts. 'Adhyatmic', in its real sense, relates to two progressive achievements or at least to sincere attempts towards those two achievements: elimination of the animal traits still clinging to man and unification with the Divine.

The mind is the altar. Place the animal which is to be offered as oblation (the evil aspects of your character, behaviour attitude etc.) and sacrifice it to the deity involved. Though born as a human, man is burdened by animal instincts and impulses, that have attached themselves to him during his previous lives as an animal. He has passed through many animal-existences and each has left its mark on his mental makeup, like a scar on the skin when a wound has healed.

Buddhi is the only instrument for realization. Jnana alone can grant the Vision the ultimate Truth. That is why the Gayatri, a Vedic prayer to the Light, that fills the Universe, to illuminate the intelligence is a prayer for prompting the spirit of inquiry and illuminating the path by the inner light of the Spirit.

Your devotion to God is best expressed by achieving the control of senses. For the senses rush towards the temporary and the tawdry and they foul the heart. I require from each of you no other gift, no more valuable offering than the heart I have endowed you with. Give me the heart, as pure as when I gave it to you, full of nectar of Love I filled it with.

It is certainly wasteful to spend precious time in mere study without any attempt to translate it into action. You need not give your word to Me now, but try to put into practice at least a few of the good things that appeal to you and that are helpful in giving you peace and contentment. To evoke the Divine in you, there is no better method than Namasmarana.

The mind is the altar. Place the animal which is to be offered as oblation (the evil aspects of your character, behaviour attitude etc.) and sacrifice it to the deity involved. Though born as a human, man is burdened by animal instincts and impulses, that have attached themselves to him during his previous lives as an animal. He has passed through many animal existences and each has left its mark on his mental makeup, like a scar on the skin when a wound has healed.

Food and recreational habits are the two main causes for ill-health. Great care has to be bestowed to ensure that injurious tendencies do not affect these two. At present, though drugs have multiplied and hospitals have been established in every nook and corner, ill-health is also widespread. This situation is attributable to the spread of deleterious food habits and pastimes.

It is certainly a wasteful way of spending precious time in mere study without any attempt to translate it into action. You need not give your word to Me now, but try to put into practice at least a few of the good things that appeal to you and that are helpful in giving you peace and contentment. To evoke the Divine in you, there is no better method than Namasmarana.

You must take every step in Sadhana or in Samsara, only after deep deliberation and satisfying yourself that it will be for your good. Otherwise, it will be like the story of the weeping city. One day a close female attendant of the Queen came to the palace weeping in great sorrow, and so the Queen began to shed tears. Seeing the Queen in tears, the entire Zannan wept and the weeping spread to the male attendants also. The King, finding the Queen inconsolably sad, also wept profusely in sympathy, and the sight made the entire city weep loud and non-stop. At last, one sensible person set in motion an inquiry, which passed through person after person until the Queen herself was accosted. She said that her attendant was in sore grief, and when she, a washer-woman by caste, was interrogated, she confessed that it was all due to the sudden demise of her favourite ass. Reason out; discriminate; and do not rush to conclusion or be led away by mere hear-say.

To remove the evils of egoism, service is the most efficient instrument. Service will also impress on the person doing service, the unity of all mankind. He who dedicates his time, skill and strength to service will never meet with defeat, distress or disappointment, for service is its own reward. His ward will be ever sweet and soft and his gestures ever revered and humble. He will have no foe, no fatigue and no fear.

The same Divine Compassion, that blessed Dhruva, saved Gajendra, restored Kuchela and stood by Prahlada, has come to earth, as the refuge of the refugeless, as the Lord of peace, harmony and righteousness, as the Lord of all the worlds, as the Sath-Chith-Anandamurthi, as the Puttaparthi Sathya Sai Sath-Chakravarthi - the king of kings.

When you scatter seeds on the surface of the soil, they do not germinate; you have to keep them inside the soil. So too, Bodha, if scattered, on the surface, will not germinate, grow into the tree of knowledge and yield the fruit of wisdom. Plant it in the heart; water the plant with Prema; and measure it with Faith and Courage. Keep off pests with the insecticides of Bhajan and Sathsang, so that you may benefit in the end.

Do not try to delve into Me; develop faith and Sraddha and derive Ananda through Prema. That is the utmost you can do; do that and benefit. Do not run after all and sundry who blabber textbook-stuff and wear the cloak of fakirhood. Examine, judge and admire. Examine the daily conduct, the motive, the outlook, the trend of the advice and the co-ordination between what is said and what is done.

Without surrender, there can be no liberation. So long as you cling to the narrow "I", the four prison walls will close in on you. Cross out the "I" and you are free. How to kill the "I" ? Place it at the feet of the Lord and say, "You", not "I" - and you are free of the burden that is crushing you. Associate always with the the vast, the unlimited, the Divine; dream and plan to merge with the Absolute; fill your ears with the call from the Beyond and the Boundless. Transcend the walls, the bars and bolts, the locks and chains. You can do so easily by fixing your mind on your own infinity.

I had to do My Dharma; and every act of Mine has its significance, which you cannot understand. You are in the dark, and you fear more. You cannot notice the heaps of earth and the pits on the road. You cannot even know that the road is smooth and fine. There is no fault or partiality in creation; be confirmed, in that. Then you will no more waver in your faith. If God's creation itself was faulty, all would have suffered equally.

Lakshmi or wealth accrues by fair means as well as foul; money is earned by gambling, by various forms of deceit; by highway robbery; by high and low; by all and sundry. Worship Lakshya, the Goal of expanding your Love till it embraces all beings, till it sees every being as your mind's eye; then, Lakshmi will, of her own accord, favour you to the extent necessary for realising the Goal. Never doubt that. Never falter.

You do not know the Gem shining inside you, the Divinity whose effulgence is your intellect, and whose reflection is the Prema you evince. You know many things other than this, but not this essential thing; you do not know where such and such a scholar lives in Venkatagiri, but you know where such and such a film-star lives in Madras: This is something to be ashamed of - this loss of the sense of values: You must recognise the Higher, the Highest.

All men are kin, they are of the same likeness, the same build; moulded out of the same material, with the same Divine essence, in each. Service to man will help your Divinity to blossom, for, it will gladden your heart and make you feel that life has been worth-while. Service to man is service to God, for He is in every man and every living being and in every stone and stump. Offer your talents at the feet of God; let every act be a flower, free from creeping worms of envy and egoism and full of the fragrance of love and sacrifice.

You believe that those who have no faith in the Vedas and the Shastras and those who do not aver that there is some Omnipresent, Omniscient Being are Nasthikas; but let me tell you, those who revere their Parents and foster them and those who love and protect with care their brothers and sisters are Theists, Asthikas believe in Gratitude, Love, Affection, Duty and Dharma and these qualities are enough to save them from perdition.

What exactly is a dream ? It is a dream within a dream. It is a dream, which unfolds before you even while you are "awake", another dream. It tries to shed some light, some joy, some courage, some faith, some hope, and some meaning on the dream called Life. Naturally, man has to seek all means of discovering the meaning of Life. For, without knowing it, he is lost; he wanders from birth to birth, receiving knock after knock and is seldom the better for all the experience.

When you go to a temple, you see the idol within but your thoughts are with your footwear that you had to keep outside the outer gate. These are matters that reveal the concentration that you are capable of. Every little point has to be taken care of, lest the benefit of the Sadhana be lost; you cannot get liberation by merely coming here; you cannot get it even by Darshan, Sparsan and Sambashan. You will have to follow the instructions, the order and the directions.

Moksha or liberation results from the breaking of the Mind with all its vagaries and wishes. You have to break your Mind but, how can you do it, when the fibrous armour of sensual desires encompasses it ? Remove them and dedicate the Mind to God and smash it in His presence. That moment, you are free.

The Gita is for saving all, and granting them liberation. Gita, in Telugu, means a line; it draws a line across and cancels the series of births and deaths; it teaches you to stand erect, unafraid, along the straight path of Dharma, along the line laid down.

The vehicle of human life is drawn in two wheels by the senses which are driven by Buddhi, with Viveka and Vairagya as the reins, the two wheels being the Kala Chakra and the Karma Chakra. The spokes of the wheel are the rules of Dharma, bound by the rim of Prema. The self is the Rider and he will not come to harm if the axle is Sathya and the goal is Shanti.

Having been born, man earns and acquires land, riches, materials, grains and articles of comforts and luxury, which he feels will give him happiness and which therefore become the object of his struggle. But, the object of realising God is forgotten. You may ask: why, should any one seek good company, do good deeds and direct his mind towards good thoughts? You are listening to Me and what do you get when you so listen? You agree that I am giving you Anandam. What do you give Me in return ? Give Me the Aacharana of what I am telling you: practice what I teach, that is enough. That is all I ask for.

Karma must not be felt as a burden, for that feeling is a sure sign, indicating that it is against the grain. No Karma which helps your progress will weigh heavily on you. It is only, when you go counter to your inner-most nature, that you feel it a burden. A time comes when you look back on your achievement and sight at the futility of it all. Entrust the Lord, before it is too late, your mind and let Him shape it as He wills.

Whom the Muslims adore as Allah, the Christians as Jehovah, the Vaishnavas as Phullajaakshe and the Saivites as Sambhu, who grants in answer to their several prayers, health, prosperity, and happiness to all wherever they may be, He is the One God of all mankind.

In every country today, men have become power-mad and they resort, without any compunction, to self-praise and dry declamation. They develop hatred against others, foster envy and feed their fatal egos. They plunge the society to which they belong into fear, anxiety and disorder. They do not know that, if elevating ideals are adhered to and practised, they could gain eternal fame; instead they are content with cheap applause and short-lived publicity.

The mansion called life must be built on a strong foundation, and the pursuit of Artha and Kama, of wealth and welfare and of all desirable objects must be regulated by the standard of Dharma. Dharma fosters those, who foster it. "Dharma Rakshithi Rakshithah". The strongest foundation is ever-present Faith in the Almighty. Some may ask, "If He is Almighty, why then can I not see Him ?" He reveals Himself only to the person who yearns for the answer, not the one who puts questions out of impudence or ignorance.

He will be present only in the transparent heart, the heart that is not clouded by egoism or attachment. The string of the rosary is present only in the Spatika heads, the crystal beads, not in the coral or Rudraksha beads. Though the string runs through these latter also, it can be seen only by splitting those beads. This is the meaning of the story of Hiranyakasipu who split the pillar; when he did that, he could see for himself the Lord, who is the core of every object and being.

Your reality is the Atma, a wave of the Paramatma. The main objective of this human existence is to visualise that Reality, that Atma, that relationship between the wave and the sea. All other activities are trivial; you share them with birds and beasts; but this is the unique privilege of man. He has climbed through all the levels of animality, all the steps in the ladder of evolution in order to inherit this high destiny. If all the years between birth and death are frittered away in seeking food and shelter, comfort and pleasure, as animals do, man is condemning himself to a further life-sentence.

The Truth can flash only in a mind clear of all blemishes. The first blemish that I would like to warn you against is: "inability to bear the success of others". Envy is the greatest of the sins. Vanity, envy and egoism are kin. They cut at the root of man's real nature. To feel proud that you are a Bhakta is also a blot. Though you may be a mountain, you must feel you are a mound and you should not pretend to be a mountain.

There are only three ways of saving oneself: Pravruthi, Nivrithi and Prapatti. Pravruthi (action, external activity) is a method of sublimating the instincts and impulses. Nivrithi (detachment; internal quiet), is a method of subduing the thirst of the senses and of the ego. Prapatti (surrender) is a method of utilising the senses, the instincts and impulses, the intelligence and the emotions for the glorification of the all-knowing, all-directing Divine. Do and dedicate, work and worship, plant and protect; but do not worry about the fruit; that is the secret of spiritual success.

When you reach the bank of a river in a strange land, you do not take advice, from a lame person or a blind person, on where you can best wade across. You follow a person who has waded often, and who is neither lame nor blind. The man who can see is a scholar; the man who can walk is a person with experience. The man with both capacities is a good guide, not those who prattle things learnt from the books or dole out set-formulae, irrespective of the stage the recipient has reached or roam about in search of people whom then can squeeze for money.

Man imagines that he has achieved much as a result of his search for material pleasures. He has discovered electricity and is using it for giving light. But what poor glory is this; when the sun rises, even the brightest bulb pales into insignificance. Man has invented the fan and, by means of electricity, he is able to create a breeze. But, when a storm arises in Nature, the toughest tree is uprooted and man's handiwork of brick and mortar is laid in ruins, with the roofs flying in the air. On what basis can he erect his pride?

The boulder on the hill, from which a portion has been blasted away to carve an idol for the temple, tells the idol, "Thath Thawam Asi" ("You and I are the same"). That and this are one substance. Yes, of one substance but what a difference? The hammer and chisel have made one, a thing of beauty and a joy for ever, an inspiration to make life beautiful and holy. You too must subject yourself to the hammer of discipline and the chisel of pain-pleasure, so that you become Divine.

All who come embodied are Avatars; that is to say, advents of the Divine, Manifestations of God. What, then, is the special feature of Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Christ? Why do you celebrate their birthdays with much reverential enhusiasm? The speciality is this: they were Aware: you are unaware of the Atma which is the Truth. Awareness confers Liberation from bonds, from time, space and causation and from sleep, dream and wakefulness. Avatars are ever alert, aware and alight.

There was a huge halo of splendour illuminating the sky over the village when Christ was born. This meant that He who was to overcome the darkness of evil and ignorance had taken birth; that He will spread the Light of Love in the heart of man and the councils of humanity. Appearances of splendour and other signs to herald the era that has dawned are natural when Incarnations happen on Earth. Jesus was to shatter the darkness that had enveloped the World and the Aura of Light was a sign that announced the event. The Masters arrive in answer to man's prayer, "Thamasomaa Jyothirgamaya"; "Lead us from darkness unto Light".

The word "Hindu" has been interpreted by scholars in various ways, but the real meaning is 'Him' (Himsa or violence), 'Dur' (far from): people who keep away from violence. The Hindus have been praying since the ages for the peace and prosperity of all the Worlds. 'Loka Samastha Sukino Bhavanthu'. Their conception of the immanence of God is strong and unshakeable. The rituals, ceremonies, vows and rites, prescribed in Hinduism, are all directed to the promotion and wellbeing of "all the Worlds". This is the reason why Hinduism is still alive and active.

Vishnu is described as "Bujagasayanam" sleeping on the snake and also as "Shanthaakaaram". The "Bujaga" or snake, which has visha or poison, represents the world of 'Vishaya' and, when you rest upon it, instead of allowing it to envelop you, you can afford to have 'Shantham' or peace. Let your boat be on water; but do not allow the water to enter the boat. Be in the world, but not of it. That is the secret of a successful life.

Saranagathi or unconditional surrender is the main gate to enter the mansion of Mukthi. It has four floors: Dhyanam, Karma, Bhakti and Jnanam. Each floor rests upon the one beneath and the topmost one cannot be reached without ascending the first three. Remember this, when you hear people arguing about the relative superiority of the Yogas or labelling themselves as 'this' or 'that' in the Adhyathmic field.

Take everything as it comes. Cultivate contentment, do not multiply your wants and foster greed and despair. You take off your warm clothing when you start feeling warm yourself. The coat of desire has to be taken off when the warmth of Bhakthi increases. Strive to secure Grace; do not strive to secure any lesser fruit.

Please do not be under the delusion that God needs light and that He requires illumination. He is 'Jyothiswarupa' with the splendour of a thousand suns. He is the force which makes Light shine and He is above and beyond the Thejas that Nature can supply. It is not so much this stone structure that needs illumination, when you come to think of it. It is the temple that you are carrying about with you, in body, that must be fitted with lights. "Dehodevalaya Proktham". The body is said to be the temple. "Jivodevah Sanathanah" and in that temple is installed the Jivi who is the "timeless" God.

You try to avoid grief; you try to taste joy instead. It is the nature of man to do so. For he is essentially 'Anandaswarupa'. When we seek 'Ananda', it is like the call of the deep for the deep. When someone asks you, "How do you do ?" and you answer, "Quite well, thank you", he does not stop to enquire why you are well. It is only, when answer that you are ill, that he stops and expresses concern and probes into the causes, symptoms and care of the illness. "Well-ness is natural"; illness is unnatural. Anxiety is caused by the unnatural only. So, you are "Suka-Swarupa" also.

Clarify the Buddhi(intellect) by Sadhana(practice) so you get a vision of the Lord who dwells within, that is the Sudarsana which saved Gajendra, the wild elephant (man) that was caught by the alligator (egoism) while rollicking in the lake (world) . The objective world (Samsara), looks upon joy and grief as teachers of handihood and balance. Grief is a friendly reminder, a good task-master; even a better teacher than joy. The Lord grants both protection and punishment, for, how can He be the Lord, if He does not insist on strict accounting and strict obedience?

The youth today, in India as well as in other lands, are afflicted with deep discontent which manifests itself in revolt against rules, regulations, curriculam and social norms and an agitational approach to every little problem that affects them. What is the basic cause of this phenomenon? The reason lies in the fact, that they have started to neglect the ancient culture of India and its ideals. They are imitating undesirable and fanatic norms of behaviour and are addicted to a code of disbelief, having no roots anywhere.

When God has come assuming a Form, take it from Me, it will not fill inferior vessels or embellish tawdry stuff or enter impure bodies. So, do not extol these falsities and ruin those unfortunates. Deal with them severely and they will be cured. Those who have seen the brilliance of the diamond will not be mislead by glass trinkets. The Lord is like the diamond, however loud the praise and however adamant the claim.

Who can give us the secret of transcending the barrier that divides the region of death from the region of immortality ? Of course, the Lord has often sent Messengers to tell humanity about it and He has Himself come down in human form to communicate it and save mankind from perdition. It is because the task of guiding man has gone on so consistently that today, in India, there is at least this quantum of earnestness to achieve it and to escape from the cycle of birth and death.

"Eshwara Sarva Bhoothaanaam Hruddese Arjuna Thishtathi" "O Arjuna, The God resides in the heart of all beings" says the Lord. He is not to be found specially in Amarnath, Kasi, Tirupati, Kedaram or Gokarnam. Just as every drop of the ocean has the taste, the composition and the name of the ocean, so too every single being has the Divine taste and composition and the name of the Lord. Only you do not realise it so clearly. The Godavari realises itself by reaching the sea: man realises himself by merging in the Absolute. "Gamyam ithi Lingam" (That which merges in the goal is Lingam).

You have to trace your ancestry and be proud of it. From Paramatma, Moola Prakrithi (Nature) descended with the emergence of Maya (illusion) and from the stuff of that illusion, Akasa (Sky) ; and from Akasa, Vayu (Air); from Vayu, Agni (Fire); from Agni, Jala( Water); from Jala, Earth. By a combinations of five elements, this tabernacle of Paramatma, that is you, was produced. The entire ladder has now to be climbed up in order to reach the Paramatma, the origin of all. There is a regular syllabus for the promotion of the spiritual aspirant, which is given in that form in the Veda and in an elaborate story-form in the Bhagavatha.

The discovery of Truth is the unique mission of man. Man is a mixture of Maya (illusion) and Madhava (God); the Maya throws a mist which hides the Madhava, but through the action of the healthy impulses inherited from acts performed while in previous bodies or through the cleansing done by austerities in this body or through the Grace of the Lord Himself, Maya melts away; for it is just a mist which flees before the Sun. Then Nara (man) is transformed into Narayana (God) and this Bhuloka is elevated into a Prasanthinilayam.

Every one has a mother as the source of his life and body. So the mother has to be strong in mind and body. Ripe in culture and character, sanctified by holy thoughts and steeped in love and dedication. Good mothers make a good nation. Mothers have to be repositories of Thyaga, Yoga and Bhakti (Detachment, Discipline and Devotion). Their Karma (Activity) must be based on these three urges.

Every little moment of incident results in sound. Only, you may not be able to hear, because the range of your ear is limited. The falling of an eyelid over the eye makes a sound and the dropping of dew on a petal makes a sound. Any little agitation disturbing the calm is bound to produce a sound. The sound caused by the primal movement that resulted in the enveloping of Brahman by self-evolved Maya is the Pranavashabda or OM. The Gayathri is the elaboration of that Pranava and so, it is now held so venerable that initiation into Adhyathmic life is achieved by its contemplation.

The one Namaskaram you do, do with devotion. That is enough. You do not do even that; you do it so callously, so indifferently and automatically. When you fold both your hands and bring them together, feel that you are offering at the Feet all the actions of the five Karmendriyas and the five Jnanendriyas as indicated by the ten fingers. Again, the purpose of Namaskaram is to touch the Feet, to have Sparsan of the Lord. The negative pole Mayasakthi, and the positive pole, Mahasakthi, have to meet in order to produce a spiritual current that will flow through you.

Come: I am the repairer of broken hearts of damaged Anthahkaranas. I am like the smith, who welds, mends and sets right. Ten years ago, a devotee prayed to Me in song, "My heart has gone dry, my lamp has gone out, my path is dark, my brain is confused. Lord make me fit again for life's arduous journey". The Lord will be waiting outside the door of the puja room of the Bhakta, anxious to fulfil his wish. Verily he, who has the Lord as his Servant, is the real Prabhu.

You may complain that God is hard and heartless since He does not respond to prayer, give a signal from His pictures and speak from 'nowhere' in clear unambiguous terms, assuaging, assuring, advising - but, 'Let Me tell you: God is Love. Love is God'. His Akara (Form) is Prema (Love), His Swabhava, essential Nature is Ananda (Bliss), and His Raktha (Life-blood) is Sathya (Truth). When even the stony cliff echoes your voice and responds when you cry, will not the softest, sweetest, love-filled heart of God respond ? When there is no response, infer that there is something wanting in the cry; perhaps, the cry is hollow, insincere, mere play-acting set to a pattern, addressed to someone alien to oneself, taken to be far away and distant as a tyrant or task-master.

Know that God is the One that is dearest and nearest to you, as dear and as near as your own heart and pray to Him. Surely His answer will be vouchsafed immediately. You may have huge hordes of men in the army; but they are useful only when the few Generals, who lead them, know where they are and whether they should proceed and how to overcome the enemy, whose strength and weakness they have comprehended. Hordes of people sing, recite, adore, worship, praise and prostrate - but these are the soldiers. Those who believe, those who have faith and who practise the disciplines are the Generals in whom the Master confides.

Talkative persons easily step into scandal-mongering. Too much talk and a tongue addicted to scandal are twins; they work together and in unison. A poet addressed his tongue thus "O, Tongue, knower of taste, relisher of sweetness, always prefer the Truth". One should not inflame passion, diminish enthusiasm or inflict injury "Sathyam Brooyath, Priyam Brooyath" (Speak the Truth, Speak pleasantly) "Nabrooyath Sathyam Apriyam" (If unpleasant, do not speak the Truth) "Priyam cha na anvartsham brooyath" (Though it may be pleasant, do not speak falsehood).

You can master all knowledge and win loud applause. (The crowds that gather may praise and proclaim "Ah what a wonderful lecture he gave".) You can be hailed as a king and rule over the realm. You can pile up vast wealth and donate gold and land. But what is the benefit gained? Karna gave away the ear-rings he wore and even sliced off his Divine suit of armour and gave it away in charity. Wherein does renunciation lead? The question is, does it purify the heart? Does it help the Divinity within to manifest itself?

Brahmacharya does not mean merely desisting from marriage. It means becoming soaked in Holy Love for the Divine, through transparent sincerity, unselfish will, pure consciousness and holy thoughts. You all know that Hanuman is described as the eternal Brahmachari. He was married to Srivatsala, yet he earned that description. How? Brahmachari means, 'He, who is in Brahman'. Hanuman had no other thought than Rama (who is Brahman) and so was ever moving in Brahman and living in Brahman. Your thoughts, feelings, desires and activities must all move in Brahman, the Universal Absolute. That is to say, whatever is spoken and whatever is seen must be cognised as Brahman. That is the real Brahmacharya stage.

Life can be sanctified and elevated to a worshipful pilgrimage if only everyone clings to his way and sees it in its proper perspective. Idle brains exaggerate matters; and cynics cause great social damage. Gulfs are widened by thoughtless criticism. If only all of you remember the principle underlying the brotherhood of man, mankind will become a mighty family, full of peace and joy.

Prema or love is a much-misused word. Any positive response to the attraction is called love. Any feeling of attachment, however trivial and transitory, is characterised as Prema. We must certainly coin new words or set aside specific words to indicate the forms of love. The attachment of parents to their children or of children to parents must be called affection. The love towards the opposite sex can be best described as fancy, fascination or delusion, Moha. The feeling of kinship or comradeship evokes dearness. The pleasure one gets through a sense of possession, especially of material objects, can be known as satisfaction. Only the yearning to reach for the sublimity that lies inherent in Truth is entitled to be called by that holy word 'Prema'.

It is My general practice to induce people to learn the sweetness of the Name. I begin My discourses with the recitation of a spiritual poem and end them with these Namavali (Bhajan), and in between, I give the lesson I love to teach. It is like a testy health-giving meal which I serve you on a plate (the problem) covering it with a lid (the Namavalis). That is how you may take it.

The Lord has said in the Gita: "Anudevega Karam Vakyam Sathyam Priya Hitam Chayat" (Speech, that does not offend, that is truthful, pleasant and beneficial, has to be praised). Such speech sanctifies the tongue. It knows and respects the limits. The ear cannot tolerate a false or discordant note. Every one of the senses responds within its own limits of tolerance and protests when that limit is exceeded or disregarded. You must be vigilant that they are put to use, with proper attention to those limits. When they stray from the path or overstep the boundaries, reason bides in head and makes you inhuman.

How can a person, who cannot himself swim, teach others the art? How can one, whose granary is empty, pour out in charity? Acquire the wealth of devotion, fortitude and peace, before venturing to advise others how to acquire them. Bharath (India) has suffered slights and disregard as a result of a spate of teachers who have not cared to practise what they teach. I know you have the enthusiasm to carry My message among the people of this country and other countries. Let Me remind you that the best and the only successful way in which you can do it is to translate the Message into your own lives. Your thoughts, words and deeds must be saturated with the message. They, then will spread effortlessly and efficiently and the face of the world will be transformed.

The Name undoubtedly brings in the Grace of God. Meerabai, the Queen of Rajastan, gave up status and riches, fortune and family and dedicated herself to the adoration of the Lord, Giridhara Gopala. Her husband brought a chalice of poison and she was ordered to drink it. She uttered the Name of Krishna while she drank it. It was transformed into nectar, by the Grace of the Name evoked.

God is the harmony of all the Forms and Names that man gives Him. Only those who are ignorant of the Glory of God will insist on one Name and one Form for His adoration and, what is worse, condemn the use by others of other Names and Forms. Since you are all associated with the Sathya Sai Organisation, I must warn you against such silly obduracy. Do not go about proclaiming that you are a sect distinct and separate from those who adore God in other Forms and Names; thereby, you are limiting the very God whom you are extolling.

People pray to God to relieve them from pain, grief and loss, to confer on them health, strength and wealth. But if you develop an intimate attachment to Him and make Him yours, then He will manage to give you all that you need. Do not demand the relationship into bargaining: give me this; then I shall give you that in exchange. If you insist on wages you become a coolie (laborer). Become His own. He is providing for the idler, the insane and the shirker: can He not provide for you?

The duration of life is under the control of Him, who gave life, the Creator. it does not depend on the categories of food consumed or the quality of drugs that are injected, or the qualification of the physician who prescribes the medicine. The chief causes of ill-health and death are Fear and Loss of Faith. If one concentrates on the Atma, which has no change in characteristics, no subtraction or senility, and no decline or damage, man can conquer Death. Therefore, that most effective prescription is the injection of Atma-Vidya (Knowledge of the Atma, the Soul as one's Real Self).

The future of India is in your hands. You are fully aware of the characteristics of this Kaliyuga, we are passing through. You find around you injustice, irregularities, immorality and untruth, with all their devilish attributes and atrocities. But we have to march ahead in spite of all this with a quiet tolerant and benign attitude towards life. Almost all the fields and walks of life are polluted with these poisonous feelings; but the field of education, being the most prominent organ, needs our special attention.

Every Indian will have to recognise the culture based on Vedic philosophy. You will know how restless and agitated the youth of India today, trying to rob everything with all pride and no achievement and thus getting involved in meaningless pursuits. The student of today is not able to realise what he should primarily be concerned with. It is only in name that he is a 'Vidyarthi' the seeker of Knowledge. In practice, he is only a 'Vishayarthi', a seeker of worldly pleasures.

Love is the seed, courage is the blossom and peace is the fruit that the sages grow in the garden of their hearts. They toiled for identifying themselves with the Truth, not for painting falsehood, with the authenticity of Truth and parading as if they had accomplished the mission on which they had come to earth. They achieved such success that Bharath was for centuries the Preceptor of Humanity; but now, the Preceptor has started taking lessons from the least intelligent of the pupils and rearing the head in pride when the pupil congratulates him.

Vishnu is described as "Bujagasayanam" sleeping on the snake and also as "Shanthaakaaram" (peaceful form). The "Bujaga" or snake, which has visha or poison, represents the world of 'Vishaya' and, when you rest upon it, instead of allowing it to envelop you, you can afford to have 'Shantham' or peace. Let your boat be on water; but do not allow the water to enter the boat. Be in the world, but not of it. That is the secret of a successful life.

At this critical hour in the history of the world, when the demoniac forces of fear and anxiety, injustice and inequity are raging in wild fury, it is the duty of every human being to be equipped with spiritual strength so that he may not be overwhelmed by the storm. This is an urgent and essential task and I must say that the women of India have a contribution to make, a service to render and a role to play. They must bring God into the hearts of the child and help it to keep Him there. For, faith in God, is the tonic that man needs to get back health and happiness.

Heart without love is as dreary as a town without a temple. Spiritual pride is the most poisonous of all varieties of pride. It blends and leads the person suffering from it into ruin. Beware of pride; be always aware that you are but an instrument in My Divine Mission of Dharmasthapana, revival of righteousness. Try to be more and more efficient as such instruments. The Hand, that wields the instrument knows how and when it has to be applied.

There are no characteristics in God, but, in the characteristics of Sathya, Jnana and Ananda, there is God. God is everywhere and no space-ship can hit against Him; no space-pilot can espy Him. He is too subtle for all that type of contact, subtler than ether or Akasha. So, do not lend your ears to people who swear there is no God. God is too vast and too far above the reach of reason or imagination. You can only get glimpses of the Bliss derived from the contemplation of His Magnificence.

The chief means by which you detach your mind from distractions and attach yourselves to the search for God are: Yoga and Thyaga. Kama (desire) has to be got rid of by Thyaga (renounciation); and Rama (God) has to be secured by Yoga (the conjunction of all your faculties for the common purpose). Desire discolours the intelligence; it perverts judgement; it sharpens the appetites of the senses; it lends a false lure to the objective world. When desire disappears or is concentrated on God, intelligence is self-luminous and it shines in the pristine splendour; and that splendour reveals the God within - and without. That is the real 'Atmasakshatkara'.

You know that you can draw cheques upon a bank, whenever you need money, provided you have enough current deposit therein. If the Bank goes bankrupt, it will be a disaster. The educational system is the Bank on which the nation draws a check whenever it wants strong, reliable skilled workers. If it goes bankrupt as it has very nearly gone today, it is a national disaster.

Do not preach; practise. In politics, in the field of administration, in schools and colleges, in spiritual institutions, every-where, we have a surfeit of preachers but a famine of practitioners. Heroes on platforms prove themselves to the zeros when they descend to the ground. Therefore, demonstrate, in your own lives, how love can confer peace and joy; how all faiths lead to the same goal; and how all man are brothers of one another.

Of what benefit is it have a body, if you do not seek to know how best to utilise it? Learn from the saints and sages who have realised the Truth about the path you shall tread and the goal you have to attain. That goal is God. He is beyond all notions of good and bad, right and wrong. These are earthly measures, by which the temporary is weighed and judged. He has no form or limbs, no dualities, no preferences, no prejudices and no predilection. To say that He is 'Sathyaswarup' (having the characteristic of Truth), and 'Jnanaswarup' (having full wisdom) and 'Anandaswarup' (full of Bliss) is also not correct. For, He has no 'Swarup' or 'Swabhav'; He is Sathya; He is Jnana; and He is Ananda. That is the experience of those who have tasted Ananda.

You may boast that you have been visiting Puttaparthi since twenty years or that you have made the place your permanent residence; but, unless you follow the lesson I emphasise, that boast is mere empty vanity. If you develop love for all beings, in the faith that God resides in all, you may be anywhere else, but your prayers would reach Me and My Grace will reach you. While in My previous body, I told Nanashab that I am in ants, insects and animals, besides all men. When a dog ate all offerings intended for Baba, it was declared to have reached Baba, for He had eaten it in that form. "Nana says, he is giving Me food, but, when I go in the form of dog, he drives Me off."

India has always laid down disciplines to cultivate universal love; the Yagnas and Yaga which are recommended in the Vedas are for Lokakalyana, Lokasangraha, the welfare and security of all mankind. That is why India is as the engine which drags the wagons along, all wagons that are coupled with it. The wagons are the different nations. 'Lookaa samasthaah Sukhino Bhavanthu' is the prayer that rises from the children of the land since thousands of years. God is Omnipresent. He is immanent in every being, and in equal measure. So man must visualise Him equally in himself and in others.

Once Ramadas wailed: "O Lord! You are mighty, all powerful, all knowing; I am alone helpless, orphaned and poor." Then the Lord interrupted the self-condemnation and said: "No, how can you call yourself poor, helpless and orphaned? I am with you and in you, showering My Grace. The only orphan in the universe is Myself, for I have no guardian, no means of support, nobody to fall back upon. I am the A-natha(Orphan) ; all else are Sa-natha (with Lord), for I am their Natha (Lord)."

The universe is the body of God; in that body, the Ekabhava (Unity Consciousness) is Bharath. "Ekam Sath" (There is only one truth) the Vedas declared aeons ago ! This is the reason why sages, saints, Divine personages and incarnations of God appear here and proclaim their message to mankind from this land. The precious message is being exported but very little is used inside the country. That is the tragedy.

Man strives to provide himself with food clothing and housing for the sake of the body. He must also provide himself with something to keep the mind healthy and happy. It is the mind that conditions even the body. The mind is the instrument, the fly-wheel, and the thickest comrade of man. Through it, one can ruin oneself or save oneself. Regulated and controlled and chanelised properly, it can liberate; wayward and let lose, it can entangle and bind fast.

Train the mind to dwell on the inner equipment rather than the outer attractions. Use the mind to cleanse the feelings, impulses, attitudes, tendencies and levels of consciousness. Let it not accumulate dirt from the outer world and deposit them within itself. If it is attached to work (Pravriti Marga), the consequences of work get attached to it. Unattached work is the purest; it does not encumber the mind with elation or disappointment, 'I did it', 'this is mine'. These are the two fangs that make the individual poisonous. Pull out the fangs; the snake can be handled and played with as a pet.

The Lord is closest to you. He is the Mother, Father, Teacher, Friend, Guide and Guardian. Call on Him, and He responds immediately. From dawn to dusk, spend every minute in His company. That is the reason why I have directed that every Sathya Sai Organisation must arrange for Nagar Sankirtan in the pre-dawn hours. It is a mission of Love and all will welcome it. It is a great act of social service to wake up people with the Name of God. It is a purificatory pilgrimage, casting off anger and hate that infest the atmosphere.

The Gita speaks of 'Yukthahara Viharasya', habits of feeding and recreation, which are controlled and regulated. The gross part of food is discarded as feces, the subtle part is transformed into muscle, blood, etc., and the more subtle aspects are transmuted into the mind and its activities. That is why the Sages have prescribed certain limits and levels of food, in order to promote the spiritual urges and prevent country tendencies. But, nowadays, as a result of the downgraded time-spirit, food that damages the spiritual urge is being increasingly favoured.

The Karma or activity is the indicator of inner character. Observing one's actions, their motives, their consequences and the extent of one's involvement, it is possible to declare one as a Pasu (beast) or Pasupathi (the Lord of Individual Souls) that is to say, as Divine as God Himself).

At achool, the first lesson, is "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool ?", and the second "Ding, dong bell, pussy in the well!". Gone are the days when the first lesson was on Rama, Krishna or some great sage or saint ? Getting to know about black sheep will make children black sheep; getting to know about the great and the good will make children great and good. Children of the Bal Vikas are therefore told stories of Rama, Krishna and other Divine persons. Learn those tales and decide to live like them. Learn Indian ways and Indian tales, and be true Indians.

Why say, "Good morning", or "Good night". "Namaskar" or "Namaste" is the Indian way, the really humble way. You must have Bhaya, Vinaya and Viswasa - fear, humility and faith. Fear of what? Fear of doing wrong and of falling into falsehood. Humility before whom? Before elders, teachers and parents. Faith in what? Faith in God, in your own strength and in your own victory.

"Tamasoma Jyothirgamaya", is the prayer. Egoism is Thamas. There is an easy way to illumine the inner consciousness and the outer behaviour with the light of God. Put the lamp of the Name of the Lord, the illuminating flame, on the tongue. That is the doorstep. That light will drive out the darkness from both inside and outside. Have it ever burning, clear and bright. You will soon reach remarkable heights and enjoy happiness, the like of which you cannot get, by sticking to the senses.

Krishna took upon Himself three vows:

"For the protection of the good and the punishment of the bad; for the establishment of the moral order, I shall take birth Myself, age after age."
"Who ever is wholly immersed in my contemplation with no other thought; I shall be ever with him ! And I shall bear the burden of his welfare."
"Surrender unto Me, giving up all other duties and obligations, I shall liberate you from all sin; do not grieve."

The Lord has to take the Form that is suitable for the task He has to fulfil. To catch a gang of decoits, the Police Officer has to move among them as a decoit. That is why the human form has been taken. But, who, challenged with impurity by their own wives, dare challenge the Avatar and ask for proofs! Of course, if you desire to understand, you are welcome; be near, watch, learn and believe. Put on the role, if you have the courage and the convicition that you can enact it well. Are you not tired of playing the parts of beggar and clown, in scene after scene, birth after birth ? Aspire for the nobler role, at least now; in this birth.

You stay far and complain that Grace has not come. You do not scrape off, by the process of repentence, the mud and rust that prevent you from getting close to Me . You come for needs sometime and stray away into the distance. I do not mean physical distance at all. You may be physically far but mentally by My side. I do not measure distance in miles or metres. I am with you, in you, beside you and ever; only you have to be aware of that and make use of My presence. You must become an 'Aartha',torn by intense suffering to sense the Lord.

If you plan to give joy to others, you will yourself be joyful. Who are these others? Even when the Lord has come with a definite human body, all humans that you come across are but parts of His Glory and Splendour. "Iswara sarva bhuthanaam, hrudesse Arjuna tishtathi" "O, Arjuna, the Lord dwells in the regions of the heart in all beings", says the Lord in the Gita.

How can we find time for all this, when we have to toil every moment for feeding and clothing ourselves, many people say ? But you forget that the Lord will grant you material things, and even immortality, if you place full reliance on Him. Whatever you do, have the name, Rama or Krishna, Siva or Hari on your tongue: no extra time or energy is needed for that. When you rise in the morning, rise with the Name on your tongue and slide into sleep with the Name on your tongue.

Consider the condition of the field of your heart; it is overgrown with thorn and bush of lust, anger, greed, and envy. Remove them, root and all. Do not allow the land to turn fallow. By continuous good work, plough the field and fill the field with the water of Prema. Select the Nama(Name) seed that appeals to you and sow it in the field. Discipline is the force which will guard the growing crop against cattle. Virtue is the pesticide. Fostering the field with great care, you can bring home the precious harvest of Ananda (bliss).

One day, Krishna pretended to be fast asleep . With the flute thrown aside by His side, when Radha approached the fortunate flute and asked it in plaintive terms, "O lucky Murali(flute) ! Tell me how did you earn the great good fortune. What was the vow you observed, the vigil you kept, the pilgrimage you undertook ?" The flute got a voice through His Grace and answered, "I rid myself of all sensual desire of envy, greed, ego, that is all. I had no feeling of ego left to obtruct the flow of His Prema through me to all creation."

Revere Jnana as you revere your father; adore Love as you adore your mother; move fondly with Dharma as if it is your own brother; confide in Daya (compassion) as if it is your dearest friend; have Shantam (peace) as your better half; treat Sahana (Fortitude) as if it is your own beloved son. These are your genuine kith and kin. Move with them and do not forsake or neglect them.

This is a place where you must try to help and not hinder; this is the atmosphere of peace (Prasanthi). Do not behave here as you do when you gather elsewhere. There is no scope here for envy or malice of hate or competition. When Kama (desire) and Krodha(anger) are rising in hot flames from the heart, how can the cool rays of Shanti, Sathya, Ahimsa and Prema emanate therefrom? This human birth is a rare chance! Use it for spreading joy, and not grief. Of course, it is natural for man to resent and to grow angry. But you should not allow anger free and furious scope.

Krishna undoubtedly had the power to transform in a trice the wayward mind of His kinsmen into unilluminated instrument for resolute action. But, Krishna did not use the power. He only prescribed the medicine and the regimen. Arjuna had to swallow the drug and follow the regimen himself, in order to be saved. Krishna said, "You are My friend; you are My kinsman; you are so near to Me that I am now your charioter; you are also in great distress. I agree that the delusion, which has overpowered you, must be removed quickly; but, your Ajnana must fall off through your own efforts not through some Miracle of My design."

One can claim genuine victory only when one has reached not the dead satellite, but the living star; not the Chandra(Moon) but the Ramachandra, the Lord who rules over the inner satellites, the inner planets, the inner motives and agitations. Then one's inner reaction and agitation will be transmuted into the Divine.

Every one's heart is Dharmakshetra where the battle between the forces of Good and Evil is fought. The whole country is Dharmakshetra. So, the mothers and children of this land must be devoted to Dharma, above all. The Gita begins with the words, Dharmakshetra, and ends with the words: 'Sarva Dharmaan Parithajiya'; 'Through Dharma, you have to transcend Dharma'. That is why Kausalya exhorted Rama when He went into the forest: "May the Dharma, which you are upholding by this act, be your guardian when you are in the forest, as an exile". And Rama upheld Dharma even under the most trying circumstances.

This world is His play; it is not an empty dream; it has purpose and use; it is the means by which one can discover God; see in Him in the beauty, grandeur, the order and the majesty of nature. These are shadows of His Glory and His Splendour; that is why the Vedas have three Sections or Kandas; Karma, Upasana and Jnana. Karma leads to the consciousness of the ever-present, immanent, all-powerful God. Upasana or adoration of that God lends to the knowledge that He is in all. When you experience that, there is no second, that is Jnana.

My place is among you, with you and wherever work lies. That is why I moved among you and stood at your back. This is just to show you that, even in your own places, when you do Bhajan or some other type of adoration like serving children of the sick or the poor; I do not sit on a special seat, apart and distant. Do not believe I am on the piedestal that you offer Me. I am part of you, a partner and partaker in all your efforts inspiring and instructing, when you ask or need inspiration an instruction.

By developing spiritual qualities, you will be promoting the resuscitation of this country and its culture. Look at the warning that the sacred texts offer ! Somaka, the Asura, stole the Vedas ! Ravana kidnapped Sita, Duryodhana grasped an empire; Kamsa slaughtered children; but not one of them realised their heart's desire that their names be exalted by history. Sentence of death awaits every one, cutting off their pride and pomp. Some young persons feel that the work they have on hand gives them great pleasure but they do not pay heed to its future consequences. When you seek beneficial results, you have to involve yourselves in beneficial activity.

There are some who are attracted by various systems and methods like Hatayoga, Kriyayoga or Rajayoga, which claim to help people to realise the self. But I must tell you that no one of this can make you realise God - I am saying this most emphatically. The Prema Yoga, discipline of Love alone can lead you to God. Those Yogas may calm the minds' agitation temporarily and may improve health and prolong life for a few more years - but that is all that they can do. What is the good you hope to achieve with that body in those extra years? If love is absent, they weigh you down as life's big burdens.

One can be in the world but yet unaffected. Activity will then be for the Almighty, by His Grace and through His will. Do not get work done through cooks, servants, ayahs and others in the home; women must not depend on these for the care of their children or attendance on their husbands. Earning leisure for Dhyana (meditation/worship), through these servants, is not a spiritual gain.

What is the immortal part of man? Is it the wealth he has accumulated? The residences he has built, the physique he has developed, the health he has acquired, and the family he has reared? No, all that he has done, developed or earned are destroyed; he has to leave them all to the ravages of time. He cannot take with him even a handful of earth he loved so much. If only the dead could take with them, a handful each, the Earth would have become scarce; it should have been rationed by now! Discover the Immortal "I"; and know that is the spark of God in you! Live in the companionship of that vast measureless Supreme and you will be rendered vast and measureless. Consider all objects that you collect here as given on trust to be used in this caravansari, during your pilgrimage, in this Karmakshetra.

This world is His play; it is not an empty dream; it has purpose and use; it is the means by which one can discover God; see Him in the beauty, grandeur, the order and the majesty of Nature. These are shadows of His Glory and His Splendour; that is why the Vedas have three sections or Kandas: Karma, Upasana and Jnana. Karma leads to the consciousness of the ever-present, immanent, all-powerful God. Upasana or adoration of that God lends to the knowledge that He is in all. When you experience that, there is no second, that is Jnana.

My place is among you, with you and wherever work lies. That is why I moved among you and stood at your back. This is just to show you that, even in your own places, when you do Bhajan or some other type of adoration like serving children of the sick or the poor, I do not sit on a special seat, apart and distant. Do not believe I am on the pedestal that you offer Me. I am part of you, a partner and partaker in all your efforts, inspiring and instructing, when you ask or need inspiration or instruction.

By developing spiritual qualities, you will be promoting the resuscitation of this country and its culture. Look at the warning that the sacred texts offer. Somaka, the Asura, stole the Vedas. Ravana kidnapped Sita, Duryodhana grasped an empire, Kamsa slaughtered children; but not one of them realised their heart's desire that their names be exalted by history. Sentence of death awaits every one, cutting off their pride and pomp. Some young persons feel that the work they have on hand gives them great pleasure but they do not pay heed to its future consequences. When you seek beneficial results, you have to involve yourselves in beneficial activity.

The law of Karma is not an iron law. By dedication, by purification, which invites benediction, its effects can be modified and its rigour mitigated. Do not despair, do not lose heart. When vices hold sway over your heart, it becomes foul and sooty. The flames of Kama, Krodha and Lobha char the heart. Grace is provided by the quenching of this flame. Grace confers Ananda, which Kama, Krodha and Lobha can never confer.

By the example of your lives, you have to restore confidence among the people in the higher values of life. Do not neglect the great lessons embedded in Sanathana Dharma, which have sustained countless generations in this land for many centuries. "May all the worlds be happy", this is the goal towards which Sanathana Dharma is leading us. Welcome, within the fold of your love, all men without distinction of race or religion, colour or class. Have the picture of the happy, lovefilled human community in your heart. That will give you enough encouragement in your mission.

It is not possible to consider creation and the creator, nature and God, as different or separate. Can we see that waves are separate from the sea? They are of the sea, with the sea and from the sea. Man too is of God, with and from God. The bubble is born in water, stays in water and is lost in water. The cosmos too is a bubble born in the Absolute, exists as the Absolute and merges in the Absolute or Paramatma. Nara (the human) is the bubble. God, Narayana is the sea. Recognise this truth as the bubble cannot be conceived as without water, the cosmos, this world cannot be conceived as without God.

Good men are the targets for maligning by the small. Have your own errors and evils hidden so that you can tackle them in solitude. Do not inflict them on others. Wrestle with them and overwhelm them in the silence of Sadhana. Deal with others only beneficially and in joyful co-operation. Look at Lord Siva. The poison, which will ruin the world, has been contained in His throat. The moon that can shower cool, calm comfort, is worn by Him on His head, for all the worlds to benefit from. That is a lesson for you. Why render others miserable, because you are too weak to suppress the bandits your heart has welcomed?

I know there are many of you who argue and discuss how and in what manner these structures came to be built so grandly. If you have known Me through and through there will be no such argument at all. You will know that this is but an insignificant product of My power. I have done this, only as an example, for, unless those who lead, are themselves active and earnest, to bend and bear the burden, those, who are encouraged to follow, will lose heart and miss the way.

When you have filled your heart with sympathy for the distressed, the Lord will shower His Grace. Draupadi had earned the Grace through her devotion and virtues. Sita, too, had stuck to the highest ideals of life inspite of her severe sufferings. She was kept as a prisoner by her abductor. When Hanuman offered to recross the ocean with her on his shoulders and take her safe to her Lord Rama, she replied that she would not allow herself to be abducted back from the custody of Ravana, since that would deny Rama the chance to punish him for his crime and retrieve her. Quite in consonance with Dharma.

The Gita is His Command. How can you earn the Master's Grace if you do not carryout the Master's commands. If the son says, "Leave me to myself, I need no instructions from you", how can he expect the father to give him a share of the property? The Gita also helps you to recognise the incarnations of God. Usually, when the Lord appears with Form, man is pestered by doubts and he actually loses the precious chance. He asks himself and all those whom he meets "Is it true ?", "Can it be true ?" and before his doubts are removed, he deserts his quest and wanders into the wilderness. Ofcourse steady enquiry is essential. Do not be led by others. Awaken your own reason, amass your own experience and decide for yourself your own path.

Nothing that is experienced will go to waste. It will shape the course of events. It will change the attitudes and habits. It will purify and clarify situations about outlooks. That is why I want you to read the Gita; it is like learning swimming - this learning of the Gita. Swimming saves you from drowning. Gita saves you from drowning in the treacherous flood of worldly desires. The Gita is the real purpose for which the Avatar of Krishna was undertaken.

To condemn all is unjust, untrue, and unkind. Take My own instance. I never exult when I am extolled, nor shrink when I am reviled. Few have realised My purpose and significance. But I am not worried when things that are not in Me are attributed to Me. Why should I worry ? When things that are in Me are mentioned, why should I exult ? "Sayiki Sarvam Yes, Yes, Yes". "For Sayi, it is always - S.S.S." If you say, "Yes, you are the Lord", I am the Lord to you; if you say "No", I am 'no' to you. I am Ananda, Shantham, Sathya Bliss, Equanimity and Truth. Take them as your Atmathathwam. You will not be wrong.

The influence of the Divine is such that while you are contemplating it, all traces of envy and greed will disappear from the mind. The boy Krishna had entered in a Gopi's house and was just standing beneath the pot of curds when she discovered Him. Krishna ran out into the street and Gopi pursued Him, and wanted to catch Him soon, for she was so distressed that the boy was running in the hot sun. She never worried about the loss of curds or milk or butter, but the very thought of Krishna's tender feet walking over the hard stones in the sun was something she could not bear. The Prema that Krishna showered, made everyone forget everything else. He too gave such disarming replies to the queries of the mother and the Gopis that no one could have anything but Prema towards Him. That is the characteristic of Avatars at all times.

Dharma, the very clothes that Bharthmatha has worn since centuries, which is the expression of her natural style, is now seized on by wicked irreverent hands. They wish to dress her in unbecoming styles on their own initiative or frenzied dictates. So, Krishna has to come again for resuming the eviction of the wicked. Krishna revealed, the hollowness of the people who were confident of their capacity to dishonour Draupadi and the weakness of those entrusted with the task of protecting her. Now too, the Lord has to foil the attempts to undermine Dharma and to stand in support of those who are the traditional protectors of Dharma.

Yasoda one day was searching for Krishna who had strayed away. She thought He went to the house of Radha and went there. Radha just closed her eyes and meditated on Krishna for a while and when she called "Krishna", Krishna was there. Then Yasoda shed tears of joy. She said, "I love Krishna as a mother. I have a sense of egoism in me that He is my son and that I must save Him from harm and seek to give Him guidance and protection. Your Prema is pure, it has no egoism promoting it".

Remember always that it is easy to do what is pleasant, but it is difficult to be engaged in what is beneficial. Not all that is pleasant is profitable. Success comes to those who give up the path strewn with roses, and brave the hammer-blows and the sword-thrusts of the path fraught with danger. As a matter of fact, no road is strewn with rose-petals. Life is a battlefield; a Dharmakshetra, where duties and desires are always in conflict. Smother the fiery fumes ofdDesire, hatred and anger, that rise up in your hearts. It is sheer cowardice to yield to these enemies that turn you into beasts.

The vision of the Virat, the Cosmic Form is given to those who surrender their ego and take refuge in the Lord (as Arjuna did) and who imbibe with care the Gita sung by the Lord in the silence. God is Omnipresent. He is the inner Motivator of every particle in the Universe. To declare that He is amenable only to your style of worship and that He will answer only the Name that you have learnt to use, is to insult His Omniscience and His Glory. See Him in all; serve Him in all; revere Him in all. Pray, "Let the Whole World prosper; Let all mankind be happy".

Vasudeva Sarvam idam does not mean that all this is just Krishna, the son of Vasudeva. It means that all this is God, by whatever Name He is known. So, if you decry anyone, you are decrying God, that is His real core. If you become aware of the God in you and the God in all else, there is nothing to equal the peace and joy that you get.

Let Me tell you, without reforming conduct, daily behaviour, and the little acts of daily type, 'Ananda' will be beyond reach. I consider 'Pravarthana' practice as essential. A man or an institution is to be judged by his integrity and whether acts are according to the principles proposed. The mind, the body and the word - all three, must work in unison. By such disciplined Karma, the senses will be sublimated and Prasanthi won. Then, out of this Prasanthi, will arise Prakanthi or the great light, and, from that, will emerge Paramjyothi, the Supra-splendour of illumination. That illumination will reveal Param-Atma the Over-Soul, the Universal.

Prashanthi Nilayam is holding forth and exemplifying the higher ideals, in the material, ethical, economic, moral, spiritual, worldly and even political fields. There is no place here for anything contrary. This can be asserted without any possibility of contradiction. In spite of this, some ignorant individuals rely more on their guesses than on facts, and indulge in spreading wrong conclusions. Let me tell them that, if a single person in the whole world points out a wrong step in Prasanthi Nilayam, he shall be met and convinced for. The Prasanthinilayam is eagerly bent upon the task of upholding and demonstrating high and holy ideals achieving spiritual realisation. It does not seek those worldly riches, nor does it yearn for earning favours and fame.

In Prashanthi Nilayam, no misuse or extravagance can ever happen, for any festival either Shivarathri, Navarathri, or the Birthday. Many people imagine that lakhs of rupees are spent here for the Dasara celebrations, but, all who come serve their best in the fullness of devotion that dwells in their hearts and so, not a Naya paise is spent for any purpose. The priests who officiate in the Yagna and the lecturers who deliver discourses - all come and share in the joy, out of Love and Faith, their comforts are looked after by the members of the Seva Dal and the Sevasamithis and by the volunteers, who dedicate their strength and skills to make the Festivals a success. No paise is spent on any item.

Man has Truth as his nature. That is to say, you can rely on man's behaviour being always true. He will speak out only what he feels to be sincere. He will act according to his words. His thought, word and action will be consistent and complementary. If, in any one case, this concordance is absent, then the person is a man only in outer form. He is worse than a beast, for beasts are free from the burdens of thought and speech.

God gives an ear to the prayers that rise in all languages and even from the silence of the dumb. He has no trace of anger or worry. You too have no reason to develop anger and anxiety. When the teeth bite your tongue, do you get angry at them for hurting? Do you break the teeth that hurt it so? No. Teeth and tongue are both yours. Similarly he who hurts you and you are both limbs of the same body, God. Feel that Oneness and avoid hate. God is on the lookout for the inner vision. He blesses those whose hearts are so vast, that they can take in all His children. How can He be pleased when you are so selfish and narrow-minded, that you send away His children from the door-step of your heart.

What has brought you all, in this vast number, from your homes and villages to this place? Ponder over this. The reason for your presence is not any force or authority to earn material profit or gain. It is the Love you have for Me, and the Love I have for you.

Rama strove to uphold Sathya as the main plank of Dharma. Whatever the trial and however hard the travail, He did not Give up Truth. Sathyam is Dharmam; Dharmam is Sathyam, the two are irrevocably intertwined. 'Sathyam Vada; Dharmam Chara', say the Upanishads. Rama will be remembered so long as mountains raise their heads and the ocean exist, because of this strict adherence to Sathya and Dharma. If He had argued "Why should I be bound by the word of my father ?", He would not have earned this immortality. The immortal had come in the form of Rama to show the way to immortality.

When you travel towards God, obstacles have to be bypassed. Prahlada went against his father, Vibhishana went against his brother, Jamadagni had to harm his own mother, Meera could not obey her husband, because they stuck to the path of God and broke through all those who opposed them.