Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

A true spiritual preceptor (Guru) is required to reveal the real nature of Divinity. Such a Guru has been equated with the Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The devotee who regards God Himself as his Guru will not have any difficulties. The true guru is like an ophthalmic surgeon. The latter removes the film in the patient's eye and restores his natural vision. The Guru also should remove the veil of ignorance and attachment that blurs the vision of the disciple and restore his natural spiritual vision.

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.

The true meaning of Guru is, “one who is beyond attributes and forms, the Supreme Self (The Brahman)”. When this Self is within you, where is the need to search for a Guru? A teacher who teaches others has had a teacher himself. The one who has no Guru above him is the true Guru.

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.

Today, it is full moon day (Purnima). What does Purnima signify? It means the completion of the full circle by returning to the starting point. One half of the circle is represented by worldly life. It is like the letter "C". This is equated with science, which is incomplete knowledge. The full circle represented by the moon represents the state of the mind when it is filled with Love.

Who is your Guru? You yourself are your Guru. Your mind itself is your Guru. The moment you realise this truth, there will be no need for you to have any other Guru.

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.

Cultivate the vision directed inward. The mind will then be illumined with the cool comforting Light of Love, Wisdom. That is why the mind has as its presiding deity the Moon (Chandrama manaso jathah). Hence, the celebration of the Day of Thankfulness for all Gurus and the Prime Guru, Vedavyasa is done on the Full Moon Day. Scatter the dark clouds of ignorance and egoism that cover the face of the Sun shining in the sky of your heart. God will be ever near, ever dear, ever ready with counsel and courage.

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.

If one has no self-confidence, one will not be able to achieve much although he has faith and devotion. One may have confidence in one’s own self; but if he has no devotion and faith, that too will not help him. Devotion and self-confidence are like the negative and positive. It is the combination of these two that will enable us to fulfil our sacred thought.

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.

Good company leads you to detachment and by detachment you will achieve self-realization. It is then that you will be able to realize the essential nature of the Self (Atma Thathwa) and develop faith in your own ability and yourself. I hope that you will stick to the company of the good (Sathsanga) in future and keep away from all bad company.

Consider everything as God’s Will. Whatever happens to you, be it profit or loss, pain or pleasure, have the resolute faith that it is good for you. When a person suffering from malaria consults a doctor, he will be given the bitter quinine medicine. Unless he takes the bitter medicine, he cannot be cured of the fever. Likewise, have the firm conviction that difficulties and suffering are the ways and means by which God purifies you. There is a reason behind whatever God does.

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!

The conscience is the form of the Divine within everyone. Whatever you do, the conscience tells you whether it is right or wrong. However, to ascertain the directive of the conscience you have to wait for some time. You should not be in a hurry. When you want to say something, you must consider for a moment whether it would be proper or not and then speak. When you want to listen to something, you must examine whether it is good or bad to listen and then decide what is proper.

The body is the temple of God; God is installed in every body, 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.

Students have to be encouraged to “Follow the Master (the inner voice of Conscience), Face the Devil (the down-dragging anti-social urges), Fight to the End (until one is able to overcome the inner foes of lust, anger, greed, undue attachment, pride and hatred) and Finish the Game (of life on earth).”

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.

Keep the mind away from low desires that run after fleeting pleasures. Turn your thoughts away from them and direct the thoughts toward permanent bliss, which is derivable from the knowledge of the immanent divinity. Keep before the mind’s eye the faults and failures of sensory pleasures and worldly happiness. Thus, you will be helped to grow in discrimination and non-attachment and to make spiritual progress.

Know that whatever you feel or do is an offering to God, flows towards God. So, be cautious. Do not offer bad thoughts, words and deeds which He does not accept. Offer instead the holy and the pure. That is your duty. That will ensure Self-satisfaction.

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.

Forbearance (Kshama) is not achieved by reading books or learnt from an instructor. Nor can it be received as a gift from someone else. This prime virtue kshama can be acquired solely by self-effort, by facing squarely diverse problems, difficulties of various sorts, anxieties, and suffering as well as sorrow. Difficulties help one to nurse and build the capacity for patience, one must therefore gladly welcome troubles instead of regarding them as unwelcome.

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!

In order to promote harmony, the first rule you must follow is control of the tongue. Do not give all your thoughts immediate expression. Select, ponder, and then, speak out. Speak softly, sweetly, without malice in your heart; speak as if you are addressing the Sai who resides in every one.

Be always saturated with love (Prema); do not use poisonous words against any one, for, words wound more fatally than even arrows. Speak soft and sweet; sympathise with suffering and loss and ignorance; try your best to apply the salve of soothing word and timely succour. Do not damage the faith of any one in virtue and divinity. Encourage others to have that faith by demonstrating in your own life that virtue is its own reward, that divinity is all-pervasive and all-powerful.

To transform these evil thoughts and actions into good ones, it is necessary to infuse love into all thoughts and actions. When the mind is filled with Love, all actions get suffused with Love. It is vital to fill the mind with love and expel the six enemies residing in it. Every part of the body should be filled with Divine Love. That is the way to divinise man.

Today we waste time on unnecessary and unwanted things, in indulging in unnecessary talk and doing meaningless actions. In all these actions we are sacrificing the body to time. Instead we should try to make time our servant. It means spending our time in good thoughts and good deeds. Every second of your daily existence you must ask these questions: “How am I utilising time? Is it for a good or bad purpose?”

Your life is a long journey. You should have less luggage (desires) in this long journey of life. Therefore, it is said: less luggage more comfort makes travel a pleasure. So, ceiling on desires is what you have to adopt today. You have to cut short your desires day by day. You are under the mistaken notion that happiness lies in the fulfilment of desires. But, in fact, happiness begins to dawn when desires are totally eradicated.

The foremost duty of the Sri Sathya Sai Organisations is to promote unity on the basis that all are sparks of the divine and constitute one family. Without realising this basic truth, there is no use in rendering any kind of service. There can be no sacredness in service, if good thoughts and good feelings are absent. Service as an act of righteousness (Dharma) can be offered only by one who is pure in heart, selfless and equal-minded towards everyone (Samathva).

Do all acts as offerings to God; do not classify some as ‘my work’ and some as ‘His work.’ All work is His; He inspires, He helps, He executes, He enjoys, He is pleased, He reaps, He sowed. He alone exists, for all this manifoldness is but He, seen through the mirror of Nature! Everything is for the attainment of the Supreme to be utilised for that high purpose. Nothing is to be used as itself, for itself. For Sai devotees (Sai Bhaktas), this is the only proper way of life.

Love all, Serve all. Do not consider anybody as other 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.