The Sai Teachings

                                           2014

Do not waste time speculating over what would happen in this New Year. If your actions are good, your future is bound to be good. The future of the nation depends on your actions.

Each one is responsible for their pleasure or pain. In this New Year, develop new and sacred feelings and make everybody happy. Do not struggle for money; strive for love. Once you develop love, there will be no scope for evil qualities like anger, jealousy, etc. If your thoughts and actions are good, your future will be good. Then the whole country, nay, the whole world will prosper. Pray for the peace and prosperity of the entire world. Peace can be attained only through practice of human values like Truth, Love, Righteousness, Compassion and Tolerance.

 

The Sai Teachings

Goal of Education

The key objective of education is the culture of the mind and the spirit. This is very much like agriculture, which provides food and clothing for man. We require grains to sustain the body; we require meditation to sustain the spirit.

In agriculture, you prepare the soil, plant seeds, feed the plants with fertilisers, and reap the harvest. In ‘heart-culture’, we have to plough the field of the heart, remove the weeds and wild growth, and plant the seeds. The weeds are pernicious tendencies, attitudes and habits; the fertilisers are devotion and dedication. Water to help the plant grow is the quality of love. The seeds are the names of God, which are deposited within the purified heart. The harvest which is the reward of all this spiritual discipline is Wisdom.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                            Foundations of Culture

Imitation is a sign of cowardice, not a quality that can ensure progress. How can you draw inspiration for uplifting yourself, if you are engaged in hating yourself and devaluing your achievements? You should feel no sense of shame when you bring back to memory your forefathers and the teachers of the past who built the culture that nurtured you. Instead, you ought to feel proud of them.

Like them, manifest the power that lies in self-exertion! Do not resort to the weak stratagem of imitating others. Instead absorb the good qualities that others may possess. We plant a seed in the soil. Then we supply it with the ingredients it needs—water, air, and manure. The seed sprouts. It grows into a sapling. It becomes at last a huge tree. You will notice that it does not become either soil or manure, or air or water.  These it makes use of, but adheres to its own nature and grows into a tree.  May you too live like that!

The Sai Teachings

                                                  Enjoy Peace and Joy

The tree of life can yield the fruit of bliss only when it is watered with virtue and fed on faith. Provision of food, clothing, and shelter will not ensure peace and joy; they can come only through virtue and faith. Virtue alone can endow love and sympathy.

We are now putting the cart (the body) before the horse (mind) and providing for the safety and strength of the cart alone. The horse (mind) is allowed to grow wild or is starved. Harmony at home and in society can be brought about only through the recognition of the Oneness of All. Virtues alone can endow love and sympathy, peace and joy for one and all.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                     Duties of the Youth

Young people should share with society the means and measures for its progress and security. In this stage one should start earning his income and learn to spend it wisely. The youth has to, by example, guide younger ones in the right direction and at the same time learn from elders, lessons for ones' own progress.

He must do good deeds simply for the elation they confer. Understand that practice advances wisdom, just as reading enhances knowledge. The young person must cultivate humility, reverence, devotion to God and steadfast faith. Along with earning money and serving society, attention has to be paid to virtues and morality through righteous behaviour and spiritual practices. One’s whole being must be purified and then directed along the path of sacred work.

The Sai Teachings

                                                       Develop Faith

Develop faith in God, all names are His. Every person is the embodiment of the Divine. True human relations can grow only when this truth is understood.

The first stage to Realisation is when you accept, "I am in the Light." Next you perceive and declare, "The Light is in me" and finally you realize, "I am the Light”.

“I” represents Love and “light” represent Supreme Wisdom. When love and light become one, there is Realisation. Love should come from within and not be enforced from outside.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                   Develop Character

The happiness that one derives from virtues is far superior to the happiness that you get from the possession of wealth. Unfortunately, many educated youth today are striving for wealth, physical strength and friendship. But all these have little value without the wealth of character.
For men or women, character is the foundation. If you lack character, you become feeble in all other respects. Know that one’s strength lies in character and not in the wealth one earns. Materialistic wealth is not what we need today and can never confer true happiness. Hence, earn the wealth of virtues by developing good character. Without good character, all learning will prove futile, sooner or later. With good character and purity of heart, perform all your actions. Know that even if a small act is done with a pure heart, it becomes fruitful.

 

Live up to the Teachings....

Today we celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that you should seek the Kingdom of Heaven and to enter that Kingdom, you must cultivate loving hearts. Then your hearts would become the Kingdom of Heaven.
When Jesus was born in the manger, three kings were led by a star to His place of birth. One of them, seeing the infant Jesus observed: "This Child will be a lover of God." The second said: "No, God will love Him." The third one said: "Verily He is God Himself."
The significance of these three statements is - "To love God is to be His Messenger." To be loved by God is to be a son of God and finally, as Jesus Himself said: "I and My Father are one."
Be aware that all of you are messengers of God. All of you are Children of God. So be free from selfishness and manifest the qualities of the Divine Father from today.

Sathya Sai Baba - Divine Discourse, Dec 25, 1994.

The Sai Teachings

                                                         Detachment

 A Headmaster joyfully gives up the furniture and laboratory appliances of the school when he is transferred to another school. Why? Because the headmaster knows and believes that he is only the caretaker, and is not the owner. He is not attached to these articles, for he knows that these belong to the Government.

So too, each one of us must feel that our family, our house, our car and all other possessions are all the Lord’s property. You are just a trustee and must be ready to give them up without murmur, at a moment’s notice.

Sacrifice does not mean that you should not attach value to things. You must indeed care for everything. But remember, that all of them are transient and the joy they give is very trivial and temporary. Know their real worth, do not over-estimate them and develop attachment to them.

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Greetings

                                            Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all

May you enjoy a Christmas blessed in the true spirit of happiness, tolerance and compassion; Let 2014 be a year of “new beginnings”, of good health and the achievement of personal success.

The Sai Teachings

                                                         Delusion

It is the mind that weaves a pattern called “I” - the process by which it establishes the ego and elaborates it into a multitude of shackles called delusion. The mind prompts the senses to project into the outer world of objects, for it builds up notions of pleasure and pain, of joy and grief and constructs a whole array of urges and impulses.

It protests when the individual is eager to become conscious of one’s identity. But when it finds that the individual is determined to oppose its tactics, it surrenders and disappears without a trace! Diminish your desires – you will be free from delusion.

        Desire comes from attachment – deliverance comes from detachment!

 

The Sai Teachings

Cure for Ignorance

In the garden of the Heart, you must plant and foster:
the Rose of Divinity, the Jasmine of Humility and the Lily of Generosity.
In your medicine chest, you must keep in readiness, the tablets of Discrimination, drops of Self-control and three key powders of Faith, Devotion and Patience.
Through the use of these drugs, you can escape the serious illness called Ignorance.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                     Cultivate Love

Cultivate love towards all; it will destroy envy, anger and hatred. Trust begets trust, love begets love. If you talk to another with much love, they cannot develop any hatred towards you. Love makes the whole world kin. It is the greatest instrument of concord.

The farmer plants the seedling and watches over it with great care. He removes the weeds, he destroys the pests, waters it as and when necessary and spreads manure and awaits the day when he can reap the harvest and fill his granary. So too, you must carefully nourish love and pluck out the weeds of hatred and envy within you. Wear the glasses of love and everyone will appear loveable and good. You will get what you search for; you will see what your eyes crave for. Develop a holy vision; you will then see holiness everywhere.

The Sai Teachings

                                            Control the Tongue

When the tongue craves for some delicacy, assert that you will not cater to its whims. If you persist in eating simple food that is not savoury or pungent but amply healthy, the tongue may squirm for a few days, but will soon welcome it. That is the way to subdue it and overcome the evil consequences of it being your master.

Since the tongue is equally insistent on scandal and lascivious talk, you have to curb that tendency also. Talk little; talk sweetly; talk only when there is pressing need; talk only to those to whom you must; do not shout or raise the voice, in anger or excitement. Such control will improve health and mental peace, induce better relationships with people and minimize conflicts with others. You may be initially laughed at, but there are other compensations for you. It will conserve your time and energy; and you can put your inner energy to better use.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                  Control the Mind

This is an ancient observation true even today – that most people spend their childhood in pranks and play, their youth in sports, pleasure and pastime, middle age in plans and schemes to pile up a fortune, and old age in hospitals trying to bolster failing health through failing wealth.

Earning and spending, one fills their time with work and worry. People are busy with a number of attempts to earn happiness, but success is little and short-lived. The only panacea for all ills, the effort that will result in total victory is the control of the mind, which is the master of the senses. Every sense organ is an outlet for energy that binds one to the objective world. The senses are induced by the mind to move out and attach themselves to objects. You must make the mind submit to wisdom, which discriminates between right and wrong. Then the mind, instead of harming, will help you.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                         Goal of Education

The key objective of education is the culture of the mind and the spirit. This is very much like agriculture, which provides food and clothing for man. We require grains to sustain the body; we require meditation to sustain the spirit.

In agriculture, you prepare the soil, plant seeds, feed the plants with fertilisers, and reap the harvest. In ‘heart-culture’, we have to plough the field of the heart, remove the weeds and wild growth, and plant the seeds. The weeds are pernicious tendencies, attitudes and habits; the fertilisers are devotion and dedication. Water to help the plant grow is the quality of love. The seeds are the names of God, which are deposited within the purified heart. The harvest which is the reward of all this spiritual discipline is Wisdom.

The Sai Teachings

                                                             Self-Belief
Unless a belief is held unshaken throughout night and day, it cannot be used to achieve victory. When a person asserts that he/she is low in knowledge or talent, and knows but little, he/she becomes so; his knowledge eventually decreases. We become what we believe we are. We are the children of Almighty God, endowed with supreme power, glory and wisdom. We are children of immortality. We must understand this fundamental truth and hold fast to it always. When we dwell on this thought, how can we ever be low and ignorant? Culture teaches us to believe that the real nature of man is divine and that one should ever be conscious of this truth.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                         Be Vigilant

You must exercise constant watchfulness over your feelings and reactions, and endeavour to keep out selfishness, envy, anger, greed and other such evil tendencies from entering your minds. These are nets which entrap you; these vices overwhelm and subdue your holiness. Then you forget yourself and behave like any other uncivilised individual, a person caught in frenzy. You blabber as your tongue dictates, without regard to the effect—good or evil, and engage your hands in work that it favours. Be aware and keep them in control! If you carefully discriminate, you can be recognised by the good company you keep, the noble works you delight in and the pleasant words you utter.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                          Be in Control

The most important reason for bondage is giving too much freedom to the mind. When an animal is tethered to a post, it will not be able to go elsewhere. It cannot show anger or violence or do harm to any person. But if it is let loose, it can roam around, destroy crops and cause loss and harm to others. In the process it may get beaten for the mischief done. Similarly, the mind must be bound by certain regulations and limits. As long as Man lives within certain rules and disciplines, he will be able to maintain a good name and lead a happy and useful life. Once he crosses these limits he will go astray.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                      Add Value to your Life

An empty iron box gets value when it contains jewels. So too the body will be honoured when it contains the jewel of Divine consciousness and the gems called Virtues. Life has to be lived through for the opportunities it provides to unfold human values. Otherwise one becomes a burden upon earth, a mere consumer of food.
Life is a steady march towards the goal; it is not a meaningless term of imprisonment or a casual picnic. Even if you have no steady faith in God or in any particular Name or Form of that Immanent Power, start by controlling the vagaries of the mind, the pulls of the ego, and the attractions of sense-attachments. Be helpful to others; then your conscience itself will appreciate you and keep you happy and content, though others may not thank you.

The Sai Teachings

The 5 Elements

Godhead expressed itself initially as the five elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth. All creation is but a combination of two or more of these in varying proportions. The characteristic natures of these five elements are: sound, touch, form, taste and smell, cognized by the ears, the skin, the eyes, the tongue and the nose. Now, since these are saturated with the divine, one has to use them reverentially, with humility and gratitude. Use them intelligently to promote the welfare of others and yourself; use them with moderation and in loving service of society.

The Sai Teachings

The 4 Resolutions               Make four resolutions about your life hereafter and live in joy. 1. Practise Purity - Desist from wicked thoughts, bad habits and mean activities that weaken your self-respect. 2. Do Service – Serve others, for they are the reflections of the same entity of which you yourself are another reflection. No one of you has any authenticity on your own, except with reference to your Creator, the Lord. 3. See Mutuality – Feel always the kinship with all creation. See the same current flowing through all objects in the Universe. 4. Live in Truth – Do not deceive yourself or others by distorting your experience. - Divine Discourse, Feb 25, 1964.

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THE 4 GOALS

The Vedas (Hindu Scriptures) lay down four goals before man: Righteousness, Wealth, Desire and Liberation. But they have to be pursued in pairs, Righteousness and Wealth together and Desire and Liberation combined. That is to say, Wealth has to be earned through Righteousness, and our Desire should be for Liberation.  But man takes these four separately and ends up losing everything. He puts them into separate compartments and adopts distinct plans to achieve them. He gives up Righteousness and Liberation as beyond him and wastes his life pursuing only Wealth and Desire. This leads him to ruin. - Sanathana Sarathi, June 2001.

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Picture this inward journey as walking through a four storied building to get to the top – the ground floor being the union with God through Action, and the other floors being Devotion, Wisdom and Detachment. When it is just a nascent fruit, it is Action. That is, all are capable of the activity, and so it is the first step in spirituality as well. When it matures and is rendered free from egoism and greed, it becomes worship, and so, it leads one onto the second floor, Devotion. When it is ripe and sweet, that is to say, when the devotee achieves complete self-surrender, then it is the acquisition of Wisdom. When the fruit drops from the tree, it marks full Detachment; the fourth floor of God's mansion is then reached. - Divine Discourse, Oct 9, 1964.

The Sai Teachings

Your very form is love. Have more faith in love and develop loving relationships with others. Cultivate the feeling that you belong to all and all belong to you. All are one; be alike to everyone. All are the children of the same Divine Mother. Being the children of the same Mother, all should live like brothers and sisters. The very foundation of this country is based on truth and right action; this must be propagated. Everyone should consider adherence to truth as the greatest deed they can perform. Truth and right conduct are most important in the life of every human being. Youth, in particular, should strictly adhere to these virtues. What is truth? It means harmony of thought, word and deed. Wherever these three are in harmony, there you find Truth. You should not say one thing on the platform, but have something else in your mind, and finally act in a totally different manner from what you spoke and thought. This is the worst sin possible! – Divine Discourse, May 30, 2006.

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Peace has to be attained through spiritual efforts, that is to say, through spiritualising every thought , word and deed.

Avatars come to the world to teach Humanity the way of Love

Love gives and gives, Self gets and forgets

The Sai Teachings

You are all caskets of Divine Love; share it, spread it, express that Love in acts of service, words of sympathy and acts of compassion.

All are One - be alike to everyone

Water flows from a high level to the lower levels. God's Grace too is like that. It flows down to those who are bent with humility.