The Sai Teachings

                                                    Sat Chit Ananda

God is the Eternal Absolute (Sat) and the individual is Consciousness (Chit). When these two (Sat and Chit) merge, you have Bliss (Ananda). Your spiritual practices must help you to realise this Bliss (Sat-chit-ananda).

Where is God (Sat)? God is present in everyone. So always be prepared to serve everyone, regarding them as Divine. Your spiritual practices (Sadhana) must help you cultivate the feeling of Universal Love and adoration for the Divine who embraces everyone. There is no higher spiritual practice than the cultivation of Love. Hence, intensify your spiritual practices in the spirit that the one God pervades the many forms in the Universe.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                       God does all…

The path to God is difficult, but you can win. Let God do whatever He wants. Surrender to Him and say, “I brought nothing with me! Whatever You have given me, I offer it back to You.”

You may think your parents gave you the body. Who put life into your body? Who makes your heart tick incessantly? You may feed the body with tasty food but who digests all the food you eat? Who is the driving force behind the circulation of blood? God Himself regulates every single act within every living being. The eye that is not even an inch long can clearly perceive the stars, far away in the sky. Who gave this little eye, this big strength and power? God alone has conferred and is conferring everything upon you. With your little ego, you are confused that you are the doer. This is the greatest ignorance. Whatever He gives, accept it, it is for your highest good.

The Sai Teachings

                                      The Chariot and the Horse

Consider your physical body a chariot. Just as the horse is important for the chariot, your mind is the most important thing for your body. What is the point if the chariot is very tastefully decorated and the horse is starved?

Today, many of you are caring so much for the body and entirely neglecting the mind. Many have a very good, soft bed and stay in air-conditioned rooms, yet their body feels the heat and the mind is suffering from restlessness, with no peace of mind. Why? You are caring so much for the body and neglecting the mind. Take good care of the mind. The most appropriate foods for your mind are virtues, good feelings, good conduct and good thought.

Feed the horse well, the chariot will run! So too, take good care of your mind, you will be happy and peaceful.

The Sai Teachings

                                        Become an ideal person…

God dwells in each and every one of us. Do not criticise anybody, you will accumulate sin. Do not hate anyone. Never deride anyone’s action or ridicule them on the grounds of caste, race, gender, religion or community.

There is only one caste, the caste of humanity. There is only one religion, the religion of love. There is only one language, the language of the heart. All of you must understand and internalize this. Become an ideal person from today. Develop faith in the ‘Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God’. Do not worry about the past, forget it. This will lead you to real bliss.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                     Helping others…

Always help the poor and those suffering and in distress.
Once upon a time, in Tamil Nadu, lived a poet saint who squatted on the small veranda of his hut and chanted beautiful songs to the Lord. One day, it was raining heavily. Another man came and asked him if he could also take shelter there. The devotee said, “There was place just enough for me to stretch out, but now that you are here we will both sit erect.” Later, another man stopped by and asked for shelter. The devotee again agreed saying, “There was place for the two of us to sit. Now that you also have joined, let us all stand.”
He thus taught the principle of helping everyone and not sending anyone away who needed help, even when the means are limited. Cultivate this attitude of sharing with others any good thing you have. Thus you can practice daily, the great principle of finding God in every being.

The Sai Teachings

                                        Do not over-indulge…

If the number of passengers in a bus is within the permissible limits, travel is safe. On the other hand if it is overloaded with people or luggage, its owner has to pay the fine imposed by the Road Transport Officer (RTO).

Similarly, if you overload yourself with food or desires, the Officer of Virtues, will impose the fine of grief and ill-health on you. Hence moderation is very essential for happy living – be it in food or desires. If you want to progress and maintain good health consistently, it is imperative that you must not over indulge yourself. You will not be able to attain the elevated stage of bliss if you eat more than what your body needs.

The Sai Teachings

                                Short term Pain = Long term Gain

If you work for 24 hours in an air-conditioned place, you will take this for granted and not realize its value. But if you work for four hours in the Sun, and then sit in an air-conditioned room, you will recognize its value. Without heat, there is no value for the air-conditioner.

So too, without troubles, we will not realize the value of comforts. Only when we suffer, we realize what joy is! At times, to relieve the pain and suffering in one part of your body, the doctor may perform an operation. The surgery is a painful procedure. However, without undergoing that short term pain, you cannot remove the long term suffering. That is why the scriptures clearly call out that happiness cannot be derived from happiness. Without goodness, life has no meaning. Without sorrow, there is no value for happiness.

The Sai Teachings

  
                                                On being Positive…

When you face troubles develop courage in yourself. Do not think, “Why should I be troubled like this?” Develop broadmindedness. Firmly believe that whatever happens is only for your good. Never forget that trouble, loss, illness, etc. come only for your good. Do not see bad in good. Always see good in bad. Light has much more value when there is darkness around.

The value of joy is realized only when there are troubles. During the rainy and winter season, we want heat. In summer times, we look for coolness. You need both heat and cold, depending upon the circumstance. No matter in which situation you are, you must develop good feelings. You must start this habit of always having noble feelings from a very young age. Whatever thoughts and feelings you develop then, will last forever. Develop good thoughts and give up bad company.

 

                                                 

The Sai Teachings

                                                       As is the Food…

Food is considered God, as it is the source of a person’s life, body, mind, and character. Eat only what you need. Do not be greedy and take more than you can eat and waste the rest. Wasting food is a great sin; your surplus can feed another stomach.

Even a major part of the food you consume, the gross part, is thrown out as waste matter. A minute amount of the food, which is the subtle part, is assimilated by the body and flows as blood. And a minuscule amount, which is the subtlest part of the food, makes up your mind. Therefore mind is the reflection of the food consumed. When demonic tendencies arise in our minds, know that it is from the food we consume. To receive real nourishment, pay attention to the quality of food that you eat and let it be very pure, clean, and sanctified.

The Sai Teachings

                                                             Jealousy

Jealousy will make a person see bad, even in the good! It will bring about your destruction in many ways. Root it out of you at the earliest. If not, the next one to come is ego. Ego destroys discrimination, drives out human qualities, and turns you into a demon. Doubt, jealousy, ego and lack of faith are four very strong evil qualities. Even if any one of those four are present in anyone, without doubt, they will be ruined over time.

Develop good conduct and earnestly practice good behaviour as much as possible, then you will attain the status of a noble person over time. Never do any work with the desire for money or any other benefit. Expecting the result of work is greediness. The fruit of the action depends upon the action itself. Can you expect 100/100 even before you start studying? Instead of studying keeping marks in view, you must study because it is your duty, and do it with total dedication.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                           Wisdom is …

Since ancient times, emphasis has been laid on three aspects of our lives: work, worship, and wisdom. What is wisdom? All that is related to our senses - the fleeting objects of the material world and our actions, speak of our ignorance. Wisdom dawns the moment the mind is withdrawn. The thoughtless state between two consecutive thoughts is Spiritual Wisdom. People are not able to experience this thoughtless state and are carried away by fleeting, ephemeral, and momentary things.

All the knowledge that one acquires is not true knowledge. Knowledge of the Spirit or Soul (Atma) is true knowledge. True wisdom dawns when all thoughts are decimated. However all three of these - work, worship, and wisdom, begin with service. No matter what service it is, if it is done with love and divine feelings, it becomes worship.

 

The Sai Teachings

                                                  What is Culture?

The observance of morality in daily life, the divinization of all actions and thoughts related to life, and adherence to ideals - all of these together constitute culture. Culture means that which sanctifies the world, which enhances the greatness and glory of a country, and which helps to raise the individual and society to a higher level of existence.
The process of refinement or transformation is essential for improving the utility of any object or life. For instance, paddy has to be milled and its husk removed before the rice is fit for cooking. This is called transformation. This means, doing away with unwanted elements and securing the desirable ones. With regard to people, culture means getting rid of bad qualities and cultivating virtues. The cultured person is one who has developed good thoughts and good conduct.