Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

Develop self-confidence, which will lead you to bliss. Never give room for worries and anxieties. Gain sufficient strength of the body and mind to face boldly the difficulties, losses, and sorrows that may confront you in life. This will be facilitated if you practice the four Fs taught in our education system viz., “Follow the Master (your conscience),” “Face the Devil,” “Fight till the end,” and “Finish the game.”

Deepavali is a festival designed to celebrate the suppression of the ego by the higher Self. Mankind is plunged into ignorance and has lost the power of discrimination between the permanent and the evanescent. When the light of Divine knowledge dispels the darkness of ignorance caused by ahamkara (the ego), the effulgence of the Divine is experienced.

A devotee should be ready to gladly accept everything as God’s gift. Can you get sugar by merely requesting sugar cane, instead of crushing it to extract the juice from it? Even if it is the best kind of diamond, will it shine in all its effulgence unless it is subjected to cutting and polishing? Similarly, it is only when mankind undergoes trials and tribulations, hardships, losses, and sorrows that his real worth will shine forth.

The Divine comes as Avatar to proclaim the pure, unsullied, and unselfish love of devotees toward God. People may consider that the Avatar's activities include punishment of the wicked, protection of the good, weeding out of unrighteousness and restoration of righteousness. This is how they may look at the Avatar's doings. But that is not the way the Lord sees things. There is nothing bad in God's view. Hence there should be no hatred or ill will toward any being. It is only when you love all, that you can be said to love God.

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

All that has to happen will happen. Do not worry about it. Past is past; forget the past. Future is uncertain; do not brood over it. Present is important; live in the present and be happy. Do not worry about past and future.

A person who has a compassionate heart, who is truthful, and who serves others will never be affected by any evil forces. Such a person's life will be truly sanctified.

All that has to happen will happen. Do not worry about it. Past is past; forget the past. Future is uncertain; do not brood over it. Present is important; live in the present and be happy. Do not worry about past and future.

Do not exaggerate the importance of things that have material utility; they fade even while you grasp them. Search for Being (Sat) - that which suffers no change. Search for the state of consciousness (Chit), which is unaffected by gusts of passion, which is pure, which is free from egoism or the desire to possess. Only then can you experience the light and illumine the path for others.

Develop self-confidence. When you have self-confidence, you will attain self-satisfaction which will lead you to self-sacrifice and ultimately to Self-realization. What is the meaning of Self-realization? It means to realize one’s Self. You keep asking everybody, “Who are you?” But you do not ask yourself, “Who am I?” Am I the body, am I the mind, am I the intellect, am I the consciousness, am I the senses? When you say, ‘my body’, you are different from the body. Body is like a water bubble; mind is like a mad monkey. Do not follow the body; do not follow the mind.

Listen to pure and sacred words. People misuse their ears listening to scandal and gossip. This evil tendency should be eliminated by listening to the glories of God. Such listening has been accorded a primary place among the nine paths of devotion.

Take all worldly losses, sufferings, and worries as merely temporal and transitory. Realize that repetition of the Name and meditation are the only ways to overcome such grief. You must understand that loss, suffering, and worry are external, they belong to this world, while repetition of the Name and meditation are internal. They belong to the realm of love for the Lord.

Dasara is the festival that celebrates the victory of the forces of the good over the forces of evil. The sages who have decided on these festivals have a high purpose. They want us to imbibe the inner meaning and use each day as a step in spiritual practice (sadhana), as a reminder of each person's journey to the feet of the Lord alone. The forces of good are combating the forces of evil in every living being, and if they only rely on the great Divine Force (mahashakti) that fosters and fends the universe, they can easily win and reach their goal (enlightenment).

During the ten days of Dasara, the demons (rakshasas), in the form of wicked qualities, have been routed. Rakshasas do not mean demonic beings. The bad qualities in humans are the demons. Arrogance is a demon. Bad thoughts are demons. Ravana is depicted as the king of rakshasas. He is said to have ten heads, but he was not born with ten. Who is this Ravana, and what are his ten heads? Lust (kama), anger (krodha), delusion (moha), greed (lobha), pride (mada), envy (matsarya), the mind (manas), intellect (buddhi), will (chitta), and ego (ahamkara) -these constitute the ten heads. Ravana has these ten qualities. Each can decide whether they are a Ravana or a Rama, according to their qualities. Rama is the destroyer of bad qualities.