Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

“So” means “that”, “Ham” means “I”. Therefore “soham”, means “That I am”. “That” refers to God who is present in the human being in the form of love. Therefore, the human being should treasure love in his or her heart safely. Other thoughts come and go like passing clouds. Only love is permanent and eternal.

Develop love. Through love alone can you annihilate the mind and through love alone can you get cured of any disease. Only love can eradicate the evil qualities in you. So, love all.

Love is not something which enters your lives midway. It is the Aatmic Principle which is always with you at all times. You should not allow this love to change from moment to moment. You must transmute all your thoughts into expressions of love. To regard whatever actions you perform as an offering to God is the best form of sadhana. Whatever good deeds or spiritual acts you may perform, if they are not suffused with love, they are worthless.

How is love to be fostered? Only through love can you foster love. There is no other way. For a plant to grow, you have to use manure and water. Students should realise that to foster love of God, they have to apply the manure of faith and water of love. Only thus can the plant of devotion grow.

Duty without love is deplorable. Duty with love is desirable. Love without duty is Divine. Duty implies force or compulsion while love is spontaneous and expresses itself without external promptings. All the japa (recitation), dhyāna (meditation) and the deeds of merit you perform will be futile if you do not cultivate universal and selfless love.

Love as thought is Truth, Love as action is Righteous Conduct, Love as feeling is Peace, Love as understanding is Non-Violence. Love is selflessness, Selfishness is Lovelessness. Love gives and forgives, Selfishness gets and forgets.

Spend the years of life, the wherewithal you earn or possess, in the service of others who are in distress. Love grows on such service. Service is the sincerest form of adoration of God.

One should be prepared to serve others than choose to be served by them. Moreover, there is nothing meritorious in serving those who are high above us. For one thing, they can command the services of attendants. Rendering service to those who are in the same position as ourselves is not also commendable. Service should be rendered to those who are worse off than ourselves and who are neglected by the world.

One should not become egoistic thinking that one is doing great service. Actually, service is meant to kill ego. You cannot call it service, if it is rendered with ego. First of all, ego has to be subdued.

One should strive only to do good deeds which alone will lead one to moksha (liberation). Moksha is not an object that can be acquired from outside. It is a way to life itself. When you follow your inherent nature and cultivate good feelings, you can attain liberation from worldly bondage.

Sevā (selfless service) brings you nearer to Me. The flower that is your heart gets fragrance by means of the Sevā you do, and so it becomes more acceptable to Me. Love is the essence of that fragrance.

"More than Thapas (penance) Dhyaana (meditation), service to others is the means by which one transforms oneself. In rendering service, you should be moved by genuine concern for those you serve. You should try to ascertain the cause of their suffering and try to remove it. Only then can you do seva (selfless-service) properly.

Service does not mean helping with hands alone. Talk softly and sweetly. Speak good words. That is also a form of service.

What does unity mean? It is not the combination of many; it is the realisation of oneness. When you have mirrors all around you, you see your many forms. These are all your different forms. But this is not the truth.

In order to attain Divinity, first of all, man has to cultivate unity. In unity lies the true culture. Unity is the ideal that man should strive to attain. Any mighty task can be accomplished through unity.

This unity is based on the Divinity that is present in everything in the universe. The realisation of this unity can come, only through firm faith in God.

When there is understanding and harmony in the family, peace will spread to the community and from there to the nation and the world. Hence unity is the primary need today. Unity confers joy and peace.

Spend one hour in the morning, another at night and a third in the early hours of dawn, the Brahmamuhurtha as it is called, for Japam and meditation on the Lord. You will find great peace descending on you and great new sources of strength welling up within you as you progress in this Sadhana. After some time, the mind will dwell on the Name wherever you are and whatever you are engaged in; and then, peace and joy will be your inseparable companions.

If you want to develop satwic feelings and thoughts, your vision must be pure. All srishti (creation) is based upon drishti (sight). It is only when you have wrong vision that you have wrong thoughts. You must look upon every elderly woman as your mother and all women who are younger as your sisters. When you are filled with such pure thoughts, you will have pure feelings.

Pure satwic service. With regard to service, you have to decide what is satwic and what is rajasic. We clean streets, build roads in villages or dig wells and do them all as a service to the community. But the kind of service that we do should give real happiness to the people. In the name of “social work” you go to a hospital and approach a patient. This is not real service. Any person whom you wish to serve, you should regard as an embodiment of the Divine. Going to the help of the destitute and the neglected is rendering service to God.

Purity (pavithram) is the true characteristic of a human being. This purity should be manifested in everything one does: in his thoughts, in what he sees or says and in all that he does. It is only when you display such purity that you can become embodiments of the Divine Atma. Then the distinction between the Divine and the mundane disappears. Everything becomes Divinised.

Purity follows unity and from purity, Divinity is attained. To attain Divinity, you have to cultivate purity and for purity you should live in harmony with all. Only then will you get positive results.

Where there is unity, there shall be purity. Where there is purity, there is Divinity. You all have to lead your lives keeping in view these three aspects of unity, purity and Divinity. You should not remain unconcerned with others’ difficulties and suffering. Treat their suffering as your own. The one God dwells in the hearts of all people. ‘Iswarah sarvabhutanam.’ God is immanent even in ants and mosquitoes. There should be compassion in your heart.

First, when you sit for meditation, recite a few shlokas on the Glory of God so that the agitated mind may be calmed. Then gradually, while doing japam, draw before the mind's eye the Form which, that Name represents. When your mind wanders away from the recital of the Name, lead it onto the picture of the Form. When it wanders from the form, lead it onto the Name.

When we think of meditation, three things are involved, First, there is the person who meditates, the dhyata; secondly, there is the object of meditation dhyeya; and thirdly, there is the process of meditation itself, dhyana. In true meditation, all these three should merge. The person who is meditating should identify himself totally with the object of meditation and should be unaware of even the fact that he is meditating. When he is meditating, his attention should be so rivetted to the dhyeya that he loses his own identity and forgets his involvement in the action (dhyana), too.

Practise silence, for the voice of God can be heard in the region of your heart only when the tongue and the inner storm are stilled, and the waves (of the mind) are calmed. There will be no temptation for 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 outermost boundary of the circle you are addressing. Conserve sound, since it is the treasure of the element ether (Akasa), an emanation from God Himself.

Some persons use a Jyothi (lamp) as a basis for meditation. The lamp reveals the oneness that is the basis of the Unity or the Divine as well as the multiplicity that reflects the manifestations of the Divine. In this method, the experience of bliss does not come quickly. There are three stages in this type of meditation: uuha (imagining the Form), bhaava (experiencing the Form) and saakshaathkaara (seeing It as a Reality).

The most important quality is purity. Today everything is polluted. Water, air and all the five elements are polluted. As a result, the mind of man is also polluted. How is purity to be achieved? Fill your minds with thoughts of God, dedicate all your actions to God and consider God as your inner motivator.

Chanting the Divine Name is most important in this Kali Age. There is no better medicine than Namasmarana (remembrance or repetition of the name of God). Therefore, always chant the Divine Name. Chanting of Divine Name will do away with all your troubles and unrest and confer peace and bliss on you.

‘Namasankeerthana’ or chanting the name of the Lord is the ideal path, the steady path. God takes a form; when once He takes a form, He has a name too. Therefore, meditating on the form and chanting the name is the ideal spiritual path which has the perfect combination of the form and the name. Hence, singing His name is the royal path of liberation.

One must always have the Lord’s name on one’s tongue. One may do any work but must do so with an awareness of innate divinity, and then the work will be transformed into worship. All work must be done with the feeling that it is a divine activity.