Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

Spirituality does not mean rituals and worship alone. Spirituality is that which demonstrates unity in multiplicity. God is love personified and is installed in the heart of every man. That is why since time immemorial, the Bharatiyas (people in India) have prayed for the welfare of all people in the world.

Watch the mind, just as you watch the cable through which the current flows. Do not establish contact with the mind, it is as bad as contacting the power cable. Watch it from a distance. Then only can you derive bliss. Search for the cause of ignorance where it resides. Then you will find that the mind in association with sense objects is the cause. Cut it off from the vision of sense objects and spiritual wisdom dawns.

When the spirit of inquiry gets sharper and deeper, it leads man beyond realms of the senses and even the feeble faculty of reason, beyond the stars and space, and helps him to dive into the boundless ocean of bliss.

Why has God given hands to you? They are not given only to scribble something on paper. They should be fully engaged in the service of God. Work is worship. Duty is God. Do your duty.

Before partaking in food, chant this sacred mantra. Then nothing bad will enter your heart. Annam Brahma; Raso Vishnuhu; Bhokta Devo Maheswarah (Food is Brahma; the essence is Vishnu; the one who partakes of it is God). These three correspond to body, mind, and action, respectively. Purity of thought, word, and deed is true wisdom. You don’t need to undertake any other spiritual practice. People undertake various spiritual practices (sadhanas). But they confer only temporary satisfaction. On the other hand, when you have purity of thought, word, and deed, you experience eternal happiness.

God has four qualities, and it is only when you cultivate them that you can understand Him. They are divine love (prema), beauty (soundarya), sweetness (mādhurya) and splendor (shobhā). The development of prema is enough to add to you the other three. When you are full of love for the divine in all creation, that stage is beauty (soundarya). When you are immersed in the sea of universal love, you reach the acme of sweetness (mādhurya). When your mind loses its identity and merges in the universal mind (God), then there is splendor (shobhā) that is indescribable splendor.

You have no need to go in search of love elsewhere. It is within you. A person makes every effort to accumulate wealth. An equal effort is needed to acquire the wealth of love. Human beings today invest their assets of love in pitiful ventures. Instead, they should invest all their love in the divine bank of devotion. This deposit is not only safe but will yield you increasing returns in terms of bliss. Your heart is the bank where your love for God should be deposited.

Once you take to the path of service, your problems will gradually decrease. Love all; serve all. Do not consider anybody as another person. Develop the feeling that they and you are one. The entire humanity is one. What you see in this world is only the reaction, reflection, and resound of the reality that is One. Once you understand this truth, you will be peaceful. Only then will your mind be steady and one-pointed in the pursuit of your study and profession. Therefore, first and foremost, engage yourself in the service of society.

You think you are a human being because you are endowed with a human body, but the Divine Spirit (Atma) that dwells in all manifests as your divinity. There are thousands of bulbs that have been put up for decoration. Their color and wattage may differ, but the electric current in all of them is one and the same. Like the current that makes all the bulbs shine, the Divine Spirit present in all human beings makes them see, hear, and function.

Happiness is true holiness. True bliss lies in cultivating the principle of love and leading a life of contentment. We should always be content. When there is no contentment, worries raise their head. All troubles are created by worrying.

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.