Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

Only God is your true friend, who has no trace of selfishness and always helps you under all circumstances. Have firm conviction that God always helps and never hurts anyone. Whether in the forest or the sky, in a city, a village, at the top of a hill, or in the middle of a river, God is always with you, in you, and around you.

Today is Ugadi, the beginning of the New Year. Since ancient times, humanity has celebrated many Ugadis but has yet to give up their bad qualities. True Ugadi is when one gives up bad qualities, fills one's heart with love, and takes the path of sacrifice.

Be pleasant to everyone; let everyone be pleased with you. Do not hurt or harm by thought, word, and deed. Purify your heart; cleanse it of narrow selfishness. Bring any number of flowers and do worship (puja) with them. All will be rejected, and none accepted. Bring a single lotus, your heart, so fresh; Sathya Sai accepts and grants love and peace. Offer your virtues as flowers, virtues that spread beauty and fragrance. Offer your heart-lotus freed from insects and pests like lust, anger, and hate.

The individual's effort is but half the pursuit; the other half is the grace of God. People fulfill themselves by self-effort as well as divine blessings; the fulfillment takes them across the dark ocean of dualities to the immanent and transcendent One.

To experience the divine, one must perform good deeds. The divine is present in every being as consciousness (Chaithanya). This consciousness is also described as Sath-Chit-Ananda (Being-Awareness-Bliss). Sath means truth, that which is true and unchanging in all categories of time - past, present, and future. Truth can be cognized only by truth. Chit means total awareness. To have total awareness, you must have a comprehensive vision. You must have complete love to get that vision.

Dedicate your hands to the service of humankind. Jesus teaches infinite love and compassion. To manifest love and compassion, you must get rid of jealousy and selfishness and purify your hearts. Earn the true mercy of Jesus. Follow the path shown by Him and reach the position He holds.

Without confidence, you can never attain divinity. Your confidence is your God. So, develop unwavering confidence in the Self. Self-confidence and Self-respect will lead to Atmic bliss and the vision of the Self.

Why worry about My origin, My nature, My mystery, My miracle? The basic thing is the hand, and the cup it holds is secondary. The supported is less important than the support, the basic reality, the pure existence. When you cannot reach down to your own basic reality, why waste time exploring the essence of godhead? As a matter of fact, you can understand Me only when you have understood yourself, your own basic truth.

To a worldly person, a God-intoxicated person will appear mad, and the person will laugh at them for it. But to the God-intoxicated person, the worldly appear insane, foolish, misled, and blind. Of all the insanities that harass people, God-madness is the least harmful, the most beneficial. The world has suffered untold damage due to its "mad" rulers and "mad" guides, but nothing but harmony, peace, brotherliness, and love have come out of 'God-madness'!

There are three types of devotion. The bird method where, like a bird swooping down upon the ripe fruit on the tree, the devotee is too impatient and, by that very impatience, loses the fruit, which falls from their hold. The monkey method, where, like a monkey that pulls toward it one fruit after another and by sheer unsteadiness cannot decide which fruit it wants, the devotee hesitates, and changes aim much too often and thus loses all chances of success. The ant method, where like the ant that slowly but steadily proceeds toward the sweetness, the devotee moves directly, with undivided attention, toward the Lord and wins God’s grace!

Calamity, danger, and death cannot be avoided for all time; they are inevitable factors of life, and you must learn to live bravely with them. This can be accomplished only by uninterrupted prayer and not by spurts of worship caused by sudden fear. Purify your hearts and your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and speech; strengthen your nobler impulses.

Only when you are blessed with the grace of the Lord, which is earned by righteousness (dharma), can you have peace (shanti). A fish can have peace only when it has water above and below and on all sides; so, too, you must have God’s grace all around you. There is no shortcut to this grace and remembering the Lord’s name (namasmarana) is the safest route.

Immerse your mind in good thoughts, and the world will be good for you; soak it in bad thoughts, and the world will be bad for you. So, recollect only good, think, plan, and do only good, speak and act only good. Then, as a result, you will emulate God, the source of all good.

The earliest finding of the seekers was that the Sun was the most important factor in determining the daily lives of people and providing the basic requirements for living. Life would be impossible without the Sun for humans, beasts, birds, or plants. The Sun was regarded as the source of all energy and responsible for the birth, growth, and destruction of all things in creation. It was for this reason that sage Vishwamitra glorified the Sun God (Savitr) in the Gayatri mantra.