Let God Do It

Many times in life when I've been ravaged by doubts and disappointments, I've heard Baba's loving whisper: "Place your life in My hands and I shall lead you to your goal.  I shall protect you as the eyelids protect the eyes."  This loving assurance of the Lord has always boosted my morale and raised my drooping spirits.

In spite of this loving promise, I invariably end up feeling lost and insecure at some point of time, thus caught in a vicious circle.  I silently pleaded to Baba to free me from the vicious circle.  With this thought weighing heavily on my mind, I opened a book to be confronted by these words of Baba: "How much have you surrendered to Me?"  The question posed by Baba made me realise with a jolt that my surrender was superficial and not total.

A person who has surrendered totally should be prepared to accept everything as the ultimate will of the Supreme.  He should be unaffected by the ups and downs of life.  There should be no desires or aspirations except the longing to execute every command of His promptly.  Believing that we have surrendered to Him, we still cling to our whims and fancies.  Our ego raises its ugly head in the wild pursuit of tinsel and trash.  Doubts and worries pester us in the wake of unfulfilled desires.  This gives rise to a feeling of insecurity.  We indulge in self-pity that the Lord has forsaken us, when in fact we have ourselves to blame.

The most merciful Sai thus showed me a way out of the vicious circle in which I had entrapped myself.  He seemed to say: "Let God do it", as the lines of this poem reverberated warmly in my heart:

"As children bring their broken toys,

With tears for us to mend,

I brought my broken dreams to God,

Because He is my friend.

But then, 

Instead of leaving Him

In peace to work alone, 

I hung around and tried to help,

With ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried,

"How can you be so slow?"

"My child," He said,
What could I do?

You never did let go!"

"Let Go

Let God".

~ Rama Sampath ~

(S.S. April 1970)

Divine Wisdom

The Lord and You

You must ...

Cry only for God

Speak only the Truth

Walk only on the Sai Path

Eat only to live

Live only to let others live

Work only as worship

Play only with fairness

Fight only what's evil

Lose only the ego

Enjoy only bliss

Experience only the Divine

Forget only others' faults

Remember only His grace

Seek only Peace

Save only your self-respect

Wait only with faith

Oppose only injustice

Seek only to learn

Study only with understanding

Sing only from the heart

Serve only as an offering

Pray only to surrender

Trust only the Lord

Praise only His glory

Live only for Love's sake

Die only as a Hero

~ Ajit Popat ~

(S.S. Feb. 1990)

The Non-Existent Enemy

The Sun-God was, one day, very much impressed by the 1,008 names which a devotee offered Him worship.  He listened to the Names as he uttered them in steadfast faith.  He was particularly alerted when he called upon Him as Andhakaradweshi - He who was looked upon as the enemy of Darkness.  He could not tolerate the existence of an enemy alive, so He called for a war unto death on this Demon called Darkness.  He went into all the places where Darkness hid himself, but no sooner did He spot him, the demon disappeared so that He could never come to grips with him.  Finally, He concluded that Darkness was non-existent and was only a creation of the imagination of His adorers!  Before the splendour of Immortality, the darkness of Mortality too would flee in haste.

The resident in the body has no birth and therefore, no death.  But man is hugging the falsehood that he is the body and so is subject to death and birth.  A silver cup can be reshaped by the smith into a plate, or later, into a pan-box, but though the name, the form and the function vary, it remains the same.

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

Be Simple and Sincere

"Be simple and sincere.  It is sheer waste of money to burden the pictures and idols in the shrines and altars of your homes with the weight of garlands and to parade costly utensils and vessels and offerings to show off your devotion.  This is deception.  It demeans Divinity, imparting to it the desire for pomp and publicity.  I ask only for purity of heart to shower Grace."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

(S.S. Dec. 1989)

Divine Wisdom

Quotable Quotes

"Love begins at home,

and it is not how much we do

but how much love we put in that action."

~ Mother Teresa ~

Be a Spiritual Lion

"Never get inflated when you are praised; never get deflated when you are blamed.

Be a spiritual lion, regardless of both.  One must analyse and correct one's faults;

this most important."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

(Prema Vahini)

Celestial Poems of Sathya Sai Baba

"Transient is life and the world;

Transient is youth and wealth;

Transient too are kith and kin;

Truth and fame alone are eternal."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

Quotable Quotes

"The world is the great gymnasium where we 

come to make ourselves strong."

~ Swami Vivekananda ~

Human Life

"How sad it is that this human life, precious as a priceless diamond, has been treated as a worn out, worthless coin!  There is no use repenting after having wasted one's time without meditating on God, or practising any other sadhana to realise Him.  What is the use of planning a well when the house has caught fire?  To begin contemplation on God during the last moments is like beginning to dig the well when the fire is already on."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

(Prema Vahini)

Divine Wisdom

The Gerua Cloth

One day when Swami Vivekananda was moving about in the city of Calcutta, an aristocratically dressed person accosted him and asked, "Why do you wear this gerua robe?  Perhaps you want to advertise that you have given up the world and renounced all desires.  This exhibition is a sign of ego."

Swami Vivekananda laughed and said, "My dear friend!  I have no such idea.  I wear it because seeing that I am a sanyasin, with no money, no beggar would approach me and bother me.  I can walk about without being pestered.  I have spiritual treasures with me, but no cash.  When people come asking for them, I give."

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

Be Pure

"Before everything, be pure and holy.

Aspirants and sadhakas there are plenty, 

but those who are pure in heart are few in number."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

(Jnana Vahini)

Maha Shivarathri - 10th March 2013

“The lesson of Shivarathri is that devotees should foster good and sacred thoughts. 

They should be filled with godly thoughts. 

They should seek to become one with the Divine 

by reflecting on their inherent divinity. 

If you constantly chant the name of God, 

God realization will come in due course."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

(Divine Discourse: February 26, 1998)

Celestial Poems of Sathya Sai Baba

"O' people, be good at heart

And live with the feeling that all are one.

Remember the Lord's name with great love in your heart.

God does exist even though He is not visible to the eye.

Your spirits are up in times of prosperity

And down in moments of adversity.

Refrain from show and ceremony

Since you tend to parade with pomp.

Desist from the tendency to resort to prayer,

Meditation and deceitful tricks to earn money.

Do not run around wealth as the earth runs around the sun."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

Divine Wisdom

My Love

Today I spoke to God and this is what I heard:

If you're out there being selfish, you haven't heard my word

People out here need you

The young and old need help

Please give them my love, and give it through yourself

Bury all your hatred

Show love, and lend a hand

Surrender all your hatred, and rectify my plan

You are my flowers in a meadow from above, and every single person

came from me, to earth, with love.

~ Keith Evans ~

Animals' Compassion

It happened that two snakes got into a fight and one of them was badly hurt.  A boy who was passing by saw the injured snake and started nursing it.  The other snake was watching his enemy being tenderly taken care of and, overtaken by anger and jealousy, it wanted to attack the boy.  But before the angry snake could bite the boy, the injured snake saw what was happening and, with a last effort, it reared itself up and foiled its enemy's treachery.  It thus sacrificed its own life to save the boy who had cared for it.

This amply demonstrates that the spirit of sacrifice can be found even in animals while at times, we human beings lack it.

(From the book "I am I" by Ratan Lal)

Without Character

"Without character,

wealth, education and social status are of no avail.

It is like the fragrance of a flower, giving value and worth to life.

Poets, painters, artists and scientists may be great, each in his own field,

but without character they can have no standing in society."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~

(Prema Vahini)

Divine Wisdom