Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

The best thing is to have your own Self as the source of light, as the guru. The inner intelligence, the inner guru will reveal the truth. This prayerful attitude will so educate your impulses that your Inner Intelligence will be fully revealed.

The waves appearing in an ocean appear as different from each other. But they consist of the same water. Likewise, though humanity appears in innumerable forms, all these are like the waves appearing on the ocean of being-awareness-bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda). Names and forms may be different, but the basis is the same.

Try to be near God, as close as God’s own kin, do not calculate the number of hours you have spent in serving God, and pine that God has not compensated you. Be ever in God’s service, that is to say, in doing good and being good.

You see many things in dreams, and many things are acquired by you during dreams: power, pelf, status, and reputation. But when you awake, you do not weep over the loss, even though for the duration of the dream all that was very real and gave you real satisfaction and joy. That was a “dream”, you tell yourself; what prevents you from treating with similar nonchalance the possessions gathered during the waking stage of your life? Cultivate that attitude, and you can depart with a smile whenever the curtain falls on this dreamland stage.

Let your vision be suffused with love. Vision filled with love is the hallmark of a true human being. All are one, be alike to everyone. You can understand unity in diversity only when you develop sacred vision. Samyak drishti (correct vision – seeing things as they really are) makes you realize the presence of divinity in all.

Everyone must make their exit someday. That moment should not be a moment of anguish; one should depart gracefully, with a smile and a bow. To do that, a lot of preparation is necessary. To depart, leaving all that has been accumulated during a long lifetime, is a hard task; so, prepare for it by discarding attachment to one thing after another from now on.

While proceeding along the road, you can watch your shadow falling on mud or dirt, hollow or mound, thorn, or sand, wet or dry patches of land. You are unaffected by the fate of your shadow, is it not? Nor is the shadow made dirty thereby. It does not worry in the least where it falls or what it wades through. We know that the shadow and its experiences are not eternal or true. Similarly, you must get convinced that “you” are but the shadow of the Absolute; you are essentially not this “you” but the absolute itself. That is the remedy for sorrow, misery, and pain.

One whose heart is filled with love will see the manifestation of divinity everywhere. It is a mistake to think that nature is different from God. People give various names to divinity based on their own experience. Jewels are many, but gold is one. Likewise, names and forms are different, but divinity is one.

Wherever you may be and whatever you do, regard yourselves as instruments of the divine and act on that basis. You need not wait for a whole year to observe Guru Poornima. Treat every moment of your life as being intended for dedication to the Lord. This is the way to experience the divine all the time in all places. This is true sakshatkara (vision of the divine).

Your true guru is God alone. God transcends all gunas (attributes). God is beyond all forms. God is the only one who can dispel the darkness of ignorance and light the lamp of supreme wisdom (prajnanam).

Today is Guru Poornima. Poornima refers to the full moon with all sixteen aspects being illumined by the Sun. In people, there are sixteen black spots: the six enemies (desire, anger, greed, attachment, pride, and envy), the two gunas (attributes), rajas and tamas, and the eight types of mada (pride) based on lineage and scholarship, wealth, youth, beauty, position, and penance. It is only when one gets rid of these sixteen evil traits that one will be able to realize oneness with the poornatva (divine). Who is the one who enables mankind to achieve this state of fullness or perfection? It is the guru. Guru refers to one who has transcended the gunas and has no form.

What does GOD signify? G stands for generation (or creation). O stands for organization (sustaining the creation). D stands for destruction (or dissolution). All these three aspects can be noticed when we examine any object. All three processes take place according to the will of the divine. The entire cosmos is encompassed by these three processes.

Your heart is full of love. The yearning for God that emanates from your heart is love. Let truth and righteousness be reflected in your word and deed, respectively. The harmony of truth, righteousness, and love will lead to peace.

There is love in every one of you. What is the form of love? What is the nature of love? When we analyze carefully, we will realize that love is not limited to human beings alone but is present in all living beings. Every being is endowed with the quality of supreme divine love. One must give up enmity and cultivate unity and purity in order to understand this truth.