Thursday, March 29, 2012

Sri Rama Navami - Chant the Sweet Name of Rama


"We must learn to chant the sweet name of Rama with a pure, unsullied heart, in a spirit of selfless devotion. Men should learn to speak sweetly and pleasingly. Sweet speech confers peace. It is the means to self-realization.

Sri Rama loves to dwell in the heart of the man who speaks sweetly Wholehearted chanting of the name of Rama even once can destroy mountains of sin. But the chanting should not be done mechanically like a record. It should emanate from the depths of the heart.

You must seek to redeem your lives by living up to Rama's ideals and proclaiming them to the world. Remember the name of Rama with love. God can be realized only through love and by no other means."


~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Divine Discourse - 14.4.89)


Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Sri Rama Navami - Repeat His Name

Repeat His name, Sai Ram, Sai Ram
Sing it with love, Sai Ram, Sai Ram
Picture His form, Sai Ram, Sai Ram
He's everywhere, feel Him shining within you
Rama Rama Ram Ram
Sai Rama Rama Ram Ram

(English bhajan)

Friday, March 23, 2012

The Mind

"The mind is restless and fickle.
All troubles that afflict man stem from the mind.
The thoughts arising from the mind are the cause of human birth."


~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Divine Discourse 25.12.97)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Love

False love is selfish -
"I'm so unhappy you are so happy with someone else
that is not me!"
Thus is the ordinary being bound.

True love is selfless -
"I'm so happy you are so happy even if it is not with me!"
Thus is the enlightened being free.

Where does your love lie?
Somewhere between true and false love?
Work in the right direction...
Let your love grow unconditionally, boundlessly.
Ah... sweet sublime sacred Bodhisattva love!


(The Daily Enlightenment)


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Celestial Poems of Sathya Sai Baba

"Donning ochre robes
Do not make you a devotee;
Reciting hymns vociferously
Do not enable you to understand the inherent divinity;
Chanting the slokas in Geeta, loud and long,
Do not earn you the merit;
Only the one who observes harmony
In speech and action becomes a noble one."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Man's Primary Duty

"The essence of all creeds is one and the same.
Man's primary duty is to surrender to God.
"Surrender" means attaining the state
in which the devotee feels he is one with God.
This feeling arises out of the conviction
the same divinity is present in all."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Divine Discourse 25.12.96)

Friday, March 16, 2012

Living Joyously

My personal "secret" of living joyously is through realising that all is empty of any lasting nature. This is all a dream that everyone lives in, because everything seems so real; and yet nothing is real in the sense we see it to be. Is this not a "real dream" then? All is a constant flux of change, big and small.

Live lightly and gently. I'm not asking you to not live life dead seriously. This is seriously a dream as long as we are seriously deluded. Have a great wish to wake up. Don't take life seriously as in attaching to this and that, as if all were real for you to have and hold. Remember that your perception of reality is not really reality. Nothing is what it seems. In that sense, take your likes and dislikes, tastes and biasnesses lightly.

Nothing is this world came with labels and we do not have to label everything. Be glad to receive whatever you do, realising that it is a gift conditioned by your own karma. And when you have to, be glad to let go. Don't take anything too seriously - not even yourself (but be serious about practising the Dharma). Strong craving and hatred are signs of taking too many things too seriously.

The unmindful crave and hate ceaselessly while the Enlightened are ever steady, smiling graciously. Be gracious because graciousness is happiness. Who is more gracious than the Enlightened? Learn graciousness from them.

Enlightenment is total joy unbound, but living lightly is a joy already. And it is the path of joyous living that leads to the greatest joy of all, the cool, cool bliss of Enlightenment.


(The Daily Enlightenment)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The Camera

"Our mind is like the lens of a camera. If you want to get a picture of the people on the right side, and you turn the camera to the left, how can you succeed? Our body is the camera, our mind is the lens, our heart is the photographic plate, our thought is the flash bulb, our buddhi or intelligence is the switch.

If you want peace and happiness imprinted on your heart, turn the lens inwards to the activities and happenings that can give them, without any mixture of sorrow and misery."



(Chinna Katha from the Discourses of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)

Monday, March 12, 2012

The Human Body


"The human body is the most wondrous machine in the world. It has a bewildering multiplicity of limbs, organs, veins, nerves and cells which co-operate to maintain it under varied conditions. If any one of these rebels or refuses to rescue another, the body is bound to suffer.

So, too, a society, community or nation can be safe, secure and happy only when the individuals comprising it are mutually helpful and bound together in skillful and sincere service. Every generation has to receive education and training in such intelligent co-operation and service. Or else the world has to face confusion and chaos."


~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(S.S. January 1998)

Saturday, March 10, 2012

How God Responds

To illustrate how God responds to the prayers of devotees, Swami related the story of a rich man with four wives, who expressed what they wanted him to get for them during a trip abroad.

The first wife, who was spiritually enlightened, prayed for his safe return. The second wife wanted him to buy some sacred books. The third wife, who was ailing, wanted him to get some medicines. The fourth wife, who was a "modern", asked him to get her sarees and jewellery.

The merchant on his return gave the three wives what they wanted but stayed with the first wife because she had no other desire except to have him back.

Drawing on the lesson of this story, Swami said:

"God responds to devotees in the same manner. To those who aspire for wealth, He grants wealth. Those who seek knowledge, He will help them to acquire it. Those who are ailing and who pray to God will get the relief they pray for. God builds hospitals for their treatment. Those who pray to God for oneness with Him, will realise Him.

This is the way God responds to the four kinds of devotees."


~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Divine Discourse 25.12.96)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Celestial Poems of Sathya Sai Baba


 "You can fill an empty head easily
When there is nothing inside.
You cannot fill a head full of all sundry things.
Is it possible to empty the head
Full of all sorts of things of the Kali age?
Is it possible to fill the head with holy feelings
Unless it is emptied completely?"

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~


Monday, March 5, 2012

Blessed Legs

Sheik Sadi was a great religious preacher of Islam in Iran. He was very poor. Once he had no shoes to wear and no money to buy them. Without shoes while walking, his feet used to burn and pebbles bruised his feet. He was always in discomfort.

One day he went to a mosque at Kufa and saw, at the entrance, a man with both his legs amputated. When Sheik Sadi pondered over that man's helplessness, his eyes opened.

He thanked God, "O God, how kind of you! You have kept my two legs safe!"

We always look at what others have that we don't.
We should look at what we have that others don't.


(Author unknown)

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Nature

All things flow freely in nature -
not unlike the waters in the rivers,
the fishes swimming in the waters.

Even storms come and go freely, unimpeded.
Nature is at ease with all, naturally.

To be enlightened is to become natural,
to become at ease with everything,
to resist nothing in the world, but not feel hurt,
to embrace everything in the world, but not feel attached.
to flow unimpeded, free.


(The Daily Enlightenment)

Please the Divine

"Do what you please. Go anywhere you like.
But do everything with the feeling that
you are doing it for the pleasure of the Divine."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Divine Discourse 25.8.98)

Saturday, March 3, 2012

About Turn!


God told a certain Sanyasin:"Do not worry! I am always behind you!"

One day, the Sanyasin wanted to test whether God spoke the Truth. So, acting out of doubt, he quickly turned his head but did not see God. He asked God why He wasn't there, and God said, "As you turned your head, I moved around to the back of your head. Naturally, you were unable to see me."

God is Truth,
Truth is His nature,
Truth is His sign,
His breath.


(Chinna Katha by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)