Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

You should not be weak; be brave and welcome troubles. It is only with such a courageous attitude that you would be able to bring out the forbearance (Kshama) hidden within you. It is only your own tenacity and firm determination that will help you cultivate this virtue. You must be resolute and ready to face any difficulty in the quest of your goal. Life is a challenge; meet it!

When you get rid of the five evils associated with the pollution of speech, sight, hearing, thought and action, you will be able to realise your own Divinity and become a Supreme Soul (Paramatma). If the senses are fed with polluted food, you cannot become pure merely by taking milk and fruit. You must partake of pure Satvic food through all the five sense organs.

Always love and follow only truth; falsehood is never beneficial.

Where there is Self-confidence, there is truth. Where there is truth, there is bliss. Where there is bliss, there is peace. Where there is peace, there is God. Hence you must cultivate Self-confidence.

The body is the temple of God; God is installed in everybody, whether the owner of the body recognises it or not. It is God that inspires you to good acts, that warns you against the bad. Listen to that Voice. Obey that Voice and you will not come to any harm.

Anxiety is removed by faith in the Lord; the faith that tells you that whatever happens is for the best and that the Lord’s Will be done. Quiet acceptance is the best armour against anxiety, not the acceptance of the heroic. Sorrow springs from egoism, the feeling that you do not deserve to be treated so badly, that you are left helpless. When egoism goes, sorrow disappears. Ignorance is just a mistake, mistaken identity of the body as the Self!

Whoever you criticize or praise, it reaches God. When you criticize God, you cannot escape the consequences. Hence, never criticize.

Each one should ask themself this question: Great souls (Mahatmas) and outstanding sages were also people like me; they were also embodied beings. If they could attain perfection, so can I, if I follow their method.

Man should not give scope to ego (Ahamkara) by identifying himself with the body. 'I' does not correspond to the body. 'I' corresponds to the eternal and immortal Atma, which is not tainted by ego, pomposity, and immorality. Only when man develops such self-confidence (Atma viswasa) can he set an ideal to others. Man today does not understand the meaning of Self-confidence. First of all, man should have faith in himself.

What is an offering to the guru? The real offering is to know that you yourself are the Guru. You are the Guru, you are Brahma, you are the divine power, everything is in you.

God is the only source and sustenance for the entire universe. Everything else is an illusion. Sorrows and difficulties, loss and gain, diseases and sickness – treat them all as divine will.

The right approach is to consider Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheswara as the guru. These three are symbolised by the three qualities (Gunas): Brahma is activity (Rajas), Vishnu is serenity (Sathva) and Siva is inertia (Thamas). The whole cosmos is constituted by these three qualities. The three are present in man. The trinity are present in the form of the three qualities in every human heart. Hence, you are your own guru. You need not seek him elsewhere. You are a guru unto yourself. All potencies are within you. This is indicated by the Gayathri Mantra. You have to feel at all times your inherent divinity, which is also present in everyone.

Guru Purnima is the day on which one celebrates the dispersal of the darkness of ignorance from the mind. Hence, people should fill their minds with the all-embracing Love Principle. To experience the fullness of Love, you have to fill your hearts completely with Love. That will be the result of total devotion.

Surrender does not mean that the devotee and God are different. True surrender implies the sense of oneness with God. "Without You, I cannot exist," should be the attitude of the devotee