The Sai Teachings

                                            We are all connected

In a beautiful flower garland, the quickest to strike the eyes are the flowers, while the thread upon which they are strung has to be inferred as it is not so patent. But without the connecting thread, they all fall off. So too, without that bond in Divine, you will fall off as entities unrelated to the rest of your fellow beings. Never forget that every one is a being with a Divine spark within. The Divine Current flows through and activates each of you. Learn to direct your mind, so that it helps you to recognize the Divinity in and around you. Be sure to wield this instrument of the mind, rather than yield to it. Understand the technique of its working as well as its potentialities.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                    The Tongue
The tongue is the armour of the heart, it even guards your life. Loud talks, long talk, wild talk, talk full of anger and hate – all these affect your health. They breed anger and hatred in others; they wound, they excite, they enrage, and they estrange.
Why is silence said to be golden? The silent person has no enemies, though he or she may not have friends. They have the leisure and the chance to dive within them and examine their own faults and failings. They no more have inclination to seek them in oth­ers.
If your foot slips, you suffer a fracture; if your tongue slips, you fracture someone’s faith or joy. That fracture can never be set right; that wound will fester forever. Therefore use the tongue with great care. The softer you talk, the less you talk, the more sweetly you talk, the better for you and the world.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                          The 4 Goals

The 4 goals presented to man are: 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.

The Sai Teachings

                                                Sport teaches us…

Although there may be differences among nations in their food and habits, the spirit of harmony and unity displayed in sports is a gratifying example to all. It is a distinctive quality of sports that differences are forgotten and persons engage themselves in games in a divine spirit of camaraderie. Sports help the players not only to improve their health but also to experience joy.

However, you should not be content with realising these benefits alone. You have another body besides the physical; it is the subtle body, otherwise known as the mind. It is equally essential to promote purity of the mind and develop large heartedness. True humanness blossoms only when the body, the mind and the spirit are developed harmoniously. The enthusiasm and effort you display in sports should also manifest in the spheres of morality and spirituality.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                              Source of Creation

The entire creation is based on truth. Where there is truth, there you find abundance and prosperity. Human life is not meant to enjoy physical comforts and worldly pleasures, which are momentary. It is meant to set an ideal to the rest of the world.

Ask yourself, “Having lived all these years, what is the ideal I have set and achieved?” You might have done a few good deeds in life, but they may be outdone by the number of bad deeds you may have performed. That is not the quality of a human being. Cultivate good thoughts, speak good words and perform good deeds. That is true humanness.

We remember the ancient sages and seers even today because of the good deeds they have performed. “Do unto others what you would like others do unto you”. Do not indiscriminately follow the mind, for the mind is like a mad monkey. Follow your conscience. Love is the under-current of all this. So lead a life suffused with love.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                            Sanctify your Time

People worship God with devotion and sincerity, but God is not satisfied with external worship. You should serve society. Only service can confer bliss on you. By rendering service to society, you can alleviate the sufferings of the people, and also bring about transformation in their lives.

When you serve with sacred feelings, it is bound to yield sacred results. Serve society to your utmost capacity. Service to others confers permanent satisfaction. Time is the most precious gift of God, but you are wasting it in vain pursuits.

Sanctify the time given to you by serving society. Through service alone you can get rid of worries, ego, pomp and show, and other evil qualities.

The Sai Teachings

                                              Sanctify your efforts

Human life is highly sacred, most precious and Divine. Do not fritter it away by indulging in unsacred activities. All that you find outside is nothing but the reflection, reaction, and resound of your inner feelings. Life must be lived in the proper way by exercising control over the senses.

Speak sweetly and softly. You cannot always oblige, but you can always speak obligingly. Pray for the well-being of all. Sanctify your senses by serving all. By exercising control over your senses, you can achieve anything in life. You may think that you have given away ten bags of rice in charity and distributed clothes to 500 people. Such accounts are to be submitted to the income tax department and not to God. God is not interested in quantity; He sees the feeling behind your acts. So, whatever acts of charity you undertake, do it with the spirit of love and sacri­fice.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                   Peace is Wealth

Everyone seeks and strives to be at peace with himself and with the community around. People have tried to get this peace by accumulating wealth, which gives power over others and the ability to command conveniences and comforts. Some have sought positions of authority and influence, so they can shape events suited to one’s aims and fancies. Unfortunately, these paths are beset with fear, and the peace that is secured thereby is liable to quick and sometimes violent extinction.

Real Peace can be achieved only through Love! It is the fruit of the tree of life. This fruit with the sweet essence is encased in a bitter skin. The bitter skin is symbolic of the six evil passions that encase the loving heart of man: lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hate. Those who remove the exterior through hard and consistent discipline attain the sweetness inside - that much desired peace, everlasting, unchanging and overwhelming.

The Sai Teachings

                                   Patience and Forbearance 1

Divinity is the manifestation of Love and Forbearance.The virtue of forbearance, unlimited patience and ability to forgive and forget is not achieved by reading books or learnt from an instructor. Nor can it be received as a gift from someone.

This prime virtue can be acquired solely by self effort, by facing squarely diverse problems, difficulties of various sorts, anxieties, suffering as well as sorrow. In its absence , you will become susceptible to all kinds of evil tendencies. Hatred and jealousy easily take root in a person lacking this virtue. It gives complete protection to the one who possesses it. Hence, forbearance being a priceless possession, is the greatest, grandest and the noblest amongst all virtues and is all encompassing.

The Sai Teachings

                                     Patience and Forbearance

Difficulties and pain help one to nurse and build the capacity for patience and forbearance. However, due to mental weakness and ignorance, people invariably shun painful experiences and distress. Do not be weak; be brave and welcome troubles. Let them come, the more the merrier. Only with such a courageous attitude can you bring out the forbearance hidden within you.

Can you get promoted to a higher class without passing an examination? It is only when you secure the prescribed marks and pass the examination, you are declared eligible to advance to the higher class. While preparing for the examination you have to face stress and many difficulties but how sweet the promotion is! So welcome troubles as tests that prepare you for higher things and be happy when troubles descend on you, because that is when forbearance truly blossoms.

The Sai Teachings

                                      Our Thoughts and our Fortunes

The absence of good thoughts weakens the will power. With a weak will, one cannot accomplish even simple things. To achieve anything worthwhile in life you must strengthen your willpower. Your bad or good fortune is related directly to your thoughts.

Sowing the seed of thoughts you reap the fruit known as Karma (deeds). Sowing the seed of Karma, you then reap the fruit called Practice. From practice, you reap the fruit of Character. From character you reap the fruit of Good Fortune.

Thus fortune is based on character, which is based on good practices arising out of good deeds based on good thoughts. Thus with the development of good thoughts, one's good fortune will also grow.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                         Our Reality
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

                                               Maintain Nature’s balance

Just as a child is entitled to enjoy the milk from its mother, there can be no objection to man enjoying the resources of nature. But as a result of uncontrolled desires and reckless exploitation of natural resources, Nature is exhibiting frightening disorders. Natural calamities like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts and floods are the result of disturbances in the balance of Nature caused by this reckless exploitation.

Mankind today appears like a foolish man who is wielding the axe at the branch of a tree on which he is sitting. You have to develop a sense of spiritual oneness. Out of that sense of oneness, love will grow. Man today does not recognise this sense of oneness. ‘Man’ is not the body alone. One has the mind, intellect and the Spirit (Atma) too. When the balance among these constituents is upset, people are plunged into troubles. On the other hand, when there is a balance, true humanness blossoms.

The Sai Teachings

                                                        Life’s Game

In a game of football, the players on either side continue to kick the ball till it is sent to the goal. They must see to it that the ball does not go beyond the two posts that define the goal. The goal of life too consists of two posts: secular and spiritual. You are born as a human with the goal of not being born again.

You must live within the frames of secular and spiritual pursuits. The six bad qualities; lust, anger, greed, desire, pride and jealousy are on one side, and the good qualities; truth, right conduct, peace, love, compassion and sacrifice are on the other side. The game is between these two teams. If you tread along the divine path you can experience peace, and also share it with others. Then you will be liberated.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                    Lessons from the Scriptures

You know only the present that is happening before your eyes; you do not realise that the present is related to the past and is preparing the course of the future. Each birth wipes out the memory of the one already experienced.

The tree came from the seed and the seed from the tree and so on. You may not know which came first, tree or seed, but you can easily put an end to the cycle by frying the seed. You do not realise that the end of this cycle of birth and death lies in your own hands.

The scriptures and holy books serve this very purpose. These are not meant to mislead you. That is not the desire of the sages who wrote down these annals and their own experiences. It is to tell mankind the truth about oneself.

The Sai Teachings

Lesson of Love

The lotus leaf is born under water and it floats on water, but it does not get wet. You too must be in the world likewise—in it, by it, for it, but not of it. The special feature of Wisdom (higher education) is to prepare you for this role.

That is to say, with the heart immersed in the Divine and the hands busy in work, you must live thus on Earth. Love should not degenerate into an article of commerce. Love fulfils itself in Love.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                              Lessen your Desires

Your life is a long journey. You should have less baggage (desires) in this 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. When you reduce your desires, you advance towards the state of renunciation. You have many desires; what do you get out of them? You are bound to face the consequences when you claim something as yours. You will be blissful the moment you give up ego and attachment.

The Sai Teachings

                                                          Karma

The word karma (action) is short and crisp. But the idea and ideals it conveys are of great significance to mankind. It is of two kinds: material and spiritual, that is, connected with this World and drawn from the Vedas or scriptural injunctions.

Karma that merely sustains life is material. The spiritual actions elevate the human to the Divine and are based on the scriptures. Karma is not simply physical, it is also mental and verbal; it subsumes every activity of man—worldly, scriptural and spiritual.

All the three strands are truly intertwined. Worldly actions entail merit or demerit. Scripturally based actions are saturated with the experience of generations of seekers of goodness. The spiritually-focused will devote themselves to cleansing their hearts so that the indwelling God may be reflected therein.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                Islamic Teachings

The Quran teaches that everyone must cultivate the sense of unity, of inter-dependence, of selfless love and of the immanence of Divinity.  Prayer in Islam is a congregational activity. Group prayer produces beneficial vibrations and Islam assures great ecstasy when God is adored by a huge concourse of yearning hearts. All aspirants bend down on their knees in rows, and lean forward until their palms and foreheads touch the ground; this is done as a mark of humble submission to God’s Will.

God is One and the teachings of all faiths exalt His love, compassion, tolerance and sympathy. Islam teaches that God's grace can be won through justice and righteous living and never through wealth, scholarship or authority; only Sacred Love can please the Lord. This is the message of every religion.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                  Intellect is superior

A lame man and a blind man became friends and they moved from one place to another, with the lame man riding on the shoulder of the blind. One day, the lame man saw a field of yellow cucumber and suggested to the blind man that they pick a few and eat their fill. The blind man asked, “Brother, have they fenced the crop?” The lame man said, “No!” The blind man said, “Then let us move on, you know there are sweet and bitter varieties – if these vegetables are left unguarded – they must be bitter!”

The blind man, by his intellect, was able to discover that they were bitter even without tasting them. He used the intelligence to perceive the truth faster and clearer. Make the intellect the Master of your mind and you will not fail; you will fail only when the senses establish mastery over the mind. Clarify your intelligence through spiritual discipline.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                              In difficult times…

Equip yourselves with the Grace of God, which is reserved in abundance for those who walk the path of humility and peace. Accept the Divine as your charioteer and do not put your faith and trust in lesser, impermanent things.

What is truly required for victory is not a mere collection of resources but faith and steadiness. The gale helps to toughen the trunk of the tree. So too calamities must deepen your courage, expand your faith and intensify your spiritual practices. In fair weather, a care-free attitude is pardonable. But in inclement weather, every precaution is of great value.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                  Immortal Self

Atma or Soul  is like the “control room”. Once you gain access to the ‘control room’, all your senses and the mind will be under your control. When the main switch of the house is turned on, the bulbs in all the rooms automatically glow.

The Atma is like the main switch and the senses are like the bulbs in different rooms. These rooms are of your own making. Each room is separated from the other by a wall. Once the walls are demolished, only one big hall remains.

Body attachment is like the wall that separates one from the other and which comes in the way of realizing the Self. Once this wall is broken down, you will realize the infinite and Immortal Self.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                           Illness we experience

People suffer from two types of agony - the first one can be allayed through others’ intercession and the second can be allayed only by your own effort. For instance, hunger and thirst can be overcome only when you eat or drink. However much others may eat, will it abate even an iota of your hunger? So too, if your wife, mother or son offers to take an injection on your behalf, can your illness be cured?

The hunger and illness of your soul is also the same. You must help yourself. The illness you face today is due to some infection. Your illness is caused by the viruses of desire, anger, greed, delusion, pride and jealousy. These viruses prevent your Divinity from shining forth; they cause discontent, worry, grief and pain. You can overcome them by manifesting your inner strength. Do not yield, fight them with the faith that you are eternal and unconquerable.

The Sai Teachings

Human Values – Truth, Compassion, Love, Righteousness and Tolerance

Many people undertake spiritual exercises in order to realise Divinity. But if they don't understand human qualities, all the efforts become exercises in futility. Without learning the alphabets, how can one pick up the meaning and usage of words, phrases and sentences?

Human Values are the basic alphabets of spirituality. Develop human values and unflinching faith in the Divine. Master this and your spiritual exercises will be effective. You should also understand that there is no pleasure without pain and pain is only an interval between two pleasures. Whenever you have an unpleasant experience you should have the firm faith that it is for something good that you will be enjoying in the near future; and therefore stop worrying.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                             How to find Peace

Life must be associated with love, not hatred. Some people do not know how to talk courteously. Whatever they say is discourteous and harsh. This is not correct. Every human being should talk sweetly and softly. Your words must be suffused with love. Only then will you experience peace.

When your behaviour and speech is unpleasant, how can you expect peace to reign in your heart? Peace is not in the outside world; it is very much in your own heart. There are only "pieces" outside, not peace. You say “I want peace.” Let your behaviour be good and courteous. Then, peace will flow from you. Lead a life of mutual love. "Love all;Serve all" This is My message to you. If only there is love, you can achieve anything. Love is everything. Love is life; life is love.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                         How to become a leader

Be eager and earnest to learn more and more about the art of joyful living, the art of being happy always. Some people are happy when they dress well, wear expensive clothes and strut about the streets. At times, this may cause envy among those who cannot afford these, and one may even feel elated with that response! But you can afford to be legitimately proud, only when you are able to control the vagaries of your mind and direct your emotions along honourable and healthy channels, braving even the ridicule of your so-called friends. That is true freedom; that is true success.

If you reach that stage, then you become a seasoned driver and you can be trusted with the wheel on any road, and with any cargo, however precious. Now you are trained to not cause harm, either to yourself or to others. This stage is when you truly deserve to become a leader.

 

The Sai Teachings

How to attain our Spiritual goal

When the rains pour on the mountain peaks and the water hurries down the sides, no river emerges. However, when the water flows in a single direction, first there is a brook, then a stream, then a torrent and finally a flooded river is formed and the river merges with the sea.

So too, your mind and actions must flow full and steady along the fields of holy thoughts. The hands should be used to perform good deeds. Have the Lord's Name within and perform your natural duties.  Worthy indeed is the one who marches in such a manner to the goal.