Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

The Gita is a boat that takes people from the self-imposed state of bondage to the freedom that is their nature. People are taken from darkness to light, from lusterlessness to splendor. The Gita ordains disciplines and duties free from the taints of tendencies and impulses that tie people to the relentless wheel of birth and death.

Some people develop faith when their desires are fulfilled. If their desires are not fulfilled, they lose faith. This type of attitude is not good. Keep your faith firm, irrespective of whether your desires are fulfilled. Preserve your faith carefully. Faith can work wonders. It can make a blind person see, and a dumb person speak. Do not at all doubt the power of faith.

A person who never swerves from their determination, even under trying circumstances, is called a dheera (a hero), and such a person wins the grace of the Lord. We should try to seek fulfillment in our day-to-day life by basing our mundane activities on spiritual values. As I have been telling you off and on, you must have your hands in society and head in the forest. Whatever the activities you are preoccupied with in society, you must be steadfast in holding on to the spiritual ideal. This alone is the true spiritual practice (sadhana) that will bestow lasting peace on you.

Each second is a fresh chance given to you to train the mind, refine the intellect, purify the emotions, and strengthen the will to get confirmed in the conviction that you are the deathless Self, the infinite consciousness (Atma).

When you build a house, you install a door in front. What is the purpose of the door? To admit all who you welcome and to keep out all that you do not want. It has a double purpose; you do not keep the doors wide open for all and sundry to come in as and when they like. So too, select the impulses, motives, and incentives that enter your mind; keep out the demeaning, debasing, and deleterious. Admit the highest wisdom of the scriptures; the wisdom culled out of the crucible of experience.

Time is the very form of God. Birth and death are encompassed by time. Everyone, therefore, should regard time as divine and utilize it for performing sacred actions. You should not waste a single moment.

The year becomes new, and the day becomes holy when you sanctify it by spiritual practice (sadhana), not otherwise. Spiritual practice can grow only in a field fertilized by love. Love or prema is the “sine qua non” of bhakti (devotion to God). The love you have towards material objects, name, fame, wife, children, etc., should be sanctified by being subsumed by the more overpowering love of God. Have the love of God filling and thrilling your heart; then, you cannot hate anyone; you cannot indulge in unhealthy rivalries; you will not find fault with anyone. Life becomes soft, sweet, and smooth.

The various limbs and organs together form a body; various nations and communities together form the world. The sustenance given by divine grace circulates in every part of the body, helping it to function in unison. The stream of love, endowed by divine grace, has to circulate in every state and community to make the world live in peace and joy. If this truth is realized, there will arise no idea of difference.

There is no right conduct (dharma) or religion higher than truth (sathya). Right conduct depends on truth. Bhagavatha declares that there is no greater sin than going back on one’s own plighted word. Hence truth is supreme. Truth and right conduct are interdependent and inseparable.

The Romans addressed Jesus as ‘persona’ meaning one of sacredness. The English word person has been derived from this. It means that there is divinity in everyone. That is why I address you as embodiments of divinity. I and you are one. There is divine spirit in everybody. The very Self is called “persona”. There is no life principle without divinity.

Let us pay attention to the sacrifice that Jesus made while free, out of His own volition. He sacrificed His happiness, prosperity, comfort, safety, and position; He braved the enmity of the powerful. He refused to yield or compromise. He renounced the 'ego', which is the toughest thing to get rid of. Honor Him for these. He willingly sacrificed the desires with which the body torments humans; this is sacrifice greater than the sacrifice of the body under duress. The celebration of His birthday has to be marked by your sacrificing at least a desire or two and conquering at least the more disastrous urges of the ego.

Jesus exemplified the spirit of service to society. The inspiration for this came from His mother Mary. From His childhood, Mary taught Him such good qualities as truth, kindness, compassion, and justice.

Great teachers belong to mankind. It is wrong to believe that Jesus belongs only to the Christians and the Christmas is a holy festival for the West only. To accept one of them as one's own and discard the rest as belonging to others, is a sign of pettiness. Christ, Rama, Krishna - they are for all individuals everywhere.

The most important faculty in humans is the power of integrated awareness (Prajna-Shakti). It is from the power of integrated awareness that other powers like willpower (Ichcha-Shakti), intelligence (Medha-Shakti), the power of speech (Vak-Shakti) and the reasoning powers (Vicharana-Shakti) are derived. This integrated awareness is sustained by thoughts.