Offer God real flowers grown in the garden of your heart ~ Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Without Charity and Righteousness,
Devoid of Truth and Compassion,
With a mind bereft of scruples
And filled with bad impulses,
The evil minded man fares ill
Here and Hereafter.
Oh foolish mind!
Seeking the Vision of the Divine
Where do you wander in vain?
What you seek is within you,
Know that truth.
~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
"If you have a strong desire to see God, contemplate on Him with unwavering faith. Then you can certainly see Him. Never doubt His existence. He exists for those who believe in His existence and does not exist for those who deny His existence. He acts according to your feelings. So develop faith in Him."
~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(February 10, 2000)
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How can we experience nearness and dearness to God? Bhagawan explains with a precious pearl of an illustration from the Ramayana today.
"To be good, to do good and to see good is the primary duty of every human being! The wealth we may earn, the prosperity we may acquire, and the mansions we may build are all transient and temporary. Our conduct is the most important thing in our life. Our conduct is the one which lays the foundation for our future life. It is only when we can shape our present conduct along a proper path that our future can hopefully be peaceful and happy.
In this context, take a small incident from the Ramayana as an example. Sita, wanting to be close to Rama, was willing to sacrifice all her ornaments, her wealth and every one of her possessions. Because of this supreme sacrifice, it was possible for her to go close to Rama. But in the forest at Panchavati, the moment Sita developed anattraction to the golden deer, Rama became distant from her.
If our worldly desires and worldly attachments become stronger, we move further away from God. If we cut out the worldly desires, we get closer and closer to Paramatma!"
~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Divine Discourse - May 19, 1977)
If you wish to become eligible for God’s Love, then your actions must be consistent with Love. – BABA
What truly makes a house a home?
"In the Kali Age, man has acquired great fame, riches and comforts, but he lacks peace and a sense of security. The reason for this sorrow is the lack of patience and sympathy (sahana and sahanubhuti) amongst the members of the family living in a house.
Why does man lack these two qualities? The rise in selfishness and the use of intelligence for one’s own self-interests has brought about this decline. Man has become selfish, and he no longer thinks of contributing to others’ happiness. Patience and sympathy are like the life force for a man, akin to inhalation and exhalation. A man without these can be considered lifeless. Having acquired a number of degrees and having amassed wealth, what has man really achieved?
What every man in a family should aspire to achieve are the two virtues of patience and sympathy. Today, they build a house with four walls and call it a home. However, it was not so in the olden days. Five to six families lived together in a small hut peacefully, and it became a home.
There is a lot of difference between a house and a home. When there is sahana and sahanubhuti among members of the family, it is home. Because of the absence of these, the bhavanam (house) has become vanam (forest).
~Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Divine Discourse - October 2, 2000)
The home is the temple where the family, each member of which is a moving temple, is nurtured and nourished. – BABA
"If you have a strong desire to see God, contemplate on Him with unwavering faith. Then you can certainly see Him. Never doubt His existence. He exists for those who believe in His existence and does not exist for those who deny His existence. He acts according to your feelings. So, develop faith in Him."
~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(February 10, 2000)
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✍️ Peace Begins with Accepting What Is - Peace is already with us, quietly waiting. But we have forgotten it because we are too busy struggling against what is, wishing things were different, refusing to accept our circumstances as they are.
When we do not accept what is—when we fight reality, resist our circumstances, insist that things should be different before we can have peace—we cannot live peacefully in this present moment. We struggle in our minds, trapped between what is and what we wish would be.
And with that struggle, we cannot walk forward. We become stuck, frozen by our refusal to accept, unable to take the next step because we're too busy fighting the ground we're standing on.
This is true whether we have a little or a lot. If we hold just a bread in our hand and accept that this is what we have today, we can be at peace. We can breathe. We can take the next step. But if someone gives us gold and diamonds and we cannot accept that it's not more, we will always struggle, always suffer, always be unable to move forward.
It all depends on whether we can accept what is right here, right now.
Acceptance doesn't mean we stop working to improve our lives. It doesn't mean we pretend everything is fine or give up on change. It means we stop adding mental suffering to our circumstances by refusing to acknowledge them as they are. It means we make peace with this moment so we have the clarity and energy to move forward.
When we accept what is—simply acknowledging reality without resistance—something shifts. The struggle eases. Our minds quiet. And suddenly, we can see the path forward. We can take the next step with a calm heart instead of a turbulent mind.
Peace begins here, with accepting what is. Not fighting it. Not pretending it's different. Just accepting it with mindfulness, so we can walk peacefully forward from where we are.
May we all find the peace that comes from acceptance. May we stop struggling against what is and start walking peacefully from where we are.
May you and all beings be well, happy, and at peace.
(#WalkforPeace #BuddhistMonks #PeaceWalk)
"You should have control over your speech. Excessive talk leads to untruth and unpleasantness. That is why ancient saints and seers used to observe silence. You can uphold truth and attain fame only by talking less. Limited talk will confer happiness."
~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(February 10, 2000)
Tenali Ramakrishna, the famous Andhra poet, humorist and philosopher, once happened to lose his way while traversing an area of thick jungle. You know that he lived in the reign of the famous emperor Krishnadeva Raja, of the Vijayanagara Dynasty, about 1500 A.D. He was attached to the court and was honored as a wise and quick-witted minister.
While he was wandering desperately in the jungle, he saw an old sage. Ramakrishna ran forward and fell at his feet, in reverential homage, He asked the sage, how he got caught in that wild forest. The sage said, "The same mysterious force that dragged you here has dragged me too to this spot. The moment when I have to cast away the body I occupied so long, has arrived! I shall initiate you, now, into the mantra which I have recited all these years, as my talisman and treasure". It was the mantra of Mother Kâlî, and he whispered it into the ear of Ramakrishna.
Ramakrishna was overjoyed at the great gift; he retired into a temple of the Mother, deep in the recesses of the jungle and was intent on the meditation of the Mother, propitiated by the mantra.
At midnight one day, the aboriginal Koyas of the forest came into the temple, with a goat which they sought to offer as sacrifice to please the goddess and propitiate Her. Ramakrishna hid behind the idol and when the knife was about to fall on the neck of the victim, he exclaimed, "I am the Mother of all living beings, including you. If you kill my child, I will curse you, I cannot bless you!" Believing that it was Kâlî that spoke, the Koyas desisted and went away.
Now, Kâlî manifested before Ramakrishna. She asked him, what he liked to receive from Her! She was pleased with his sâdhana. "Which do you want?" she queried, holding a plate of curds-rice in one hand and a plate of milk-rice in another. He wanted to know the consequences of eating either plate before deciding which plate to ask for. She explained, "The curds-rice will endow you with riches and economic prosperity; the milk-rice will make you a wise scholar. Now, make your choice".
Ramakrishna thought within himself. "It is not good being a fool in possession of vast riches; nor will scholarship fill the stomach, three times a day." He was a clever person! So, he asked a further question: "I see two plates before me. Before I make the choice, tell me how each will taste".
Goddess Kâlî laughed and said, "How can I describe the taste and make you understand the difference? You will have to taste them yourself" and gave him both the plates for the purpose.
The clever Ramakrishna hastily put them both in his mouth and managed to swallow the curds and the milk, the entire quantity of rice from both plates!
Kâlî was indignant and exclaimed that his impertinence called for dire punishment. Ramakrishna accepted his mistake and invited the punishment she proposed to inflict. But can the Mother's punishment destroy the child, however reprehensible the conduct of the child may be?
"My sentence will certainly save you, do not tremble", said Kâlî. Then she pronounced the sentence thus: "Become a Vikatakavi". That is to say, "Be a clever clown, having great influence at court, accumulating much wealth and guiding all those who approach you with good advice."
God loves those who have self-confidence and courage of conviction and who seize every opportunity to improve their spiritual status.
