Thought for the Day - February 2005

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Thought for the Day

As written at Prasanthi Nilayam

http://www.saibabalinks.org/tftd/2005/february.htm

Source: Radio Sai Global Harmony - Thought for the Day Archive

February 2005

February 1, 2004

Dedication to the Lord sanctifies all activities. He is the goal of all

activities. He is the prompter, executor, giver of the required strength and

skill and the enjoyer of the fruit thereof. So, dedication must come naturally

to you, for, all is His and nothing belongs to you. Your duty is to believe

that He is the impeller of all activities, and draw strength from that belief.

February 2, 2004

Birth as a human being is a rare and unique opportunity. For, man is endowed

with a discriminating intelligence, the power to reason out the best among

alternative courses of action. The tongue that does not chant the name of God,

the hand that knows no charity, the years of life that know no peace of mind,

talents that do not find fulfillment, a life that has not garnered wisdom, a

temple where there is no atmosphere of reverence, speech that does not

communicate knowledge - all these are of no worth.

February 3, 2004

One should not undertake to analyse the good and bad in others. If we use our

eyes for finding faults in others and spend all our time in this process, our

heart will also become impure and we will develop bad thoughts. The heart is

like a camera lens. The object on which we concentrate our attention gets

imprinted on the mind. Hence, we should make an attempt to perceive the good in

whatever we see.

February 4, 2004

One may ask, if God is controlling everything, what is the need for human

effort? Yes, God is all powerful. But at the same time human effort is also

necessary, for without it man cannot enjoy the benefit of God's grace. It is

only when you have both Divine grace and human endeavour that you can

experience bliss, just as you can enjoy the breeze of a fan only when you have

both a fan and electric power to operate it.

February 5, 2004

You have to remove wicked thoughts from your heart, plough the heart with good

deeds, water it with love, manure it with faith, plant the saplings of the name

of the Lord and fence the field with discipline, destroy pests with Shraddha

(dedication) and reap the harvest of Jnana (wisdom). Understand that God is in

you, with you and around you. In fact, you are God.

February 6, 2004

Envy and greed emanate from the ego and have to be carefully watched and

controlled. Like the tadpole's tail, the ego will fall away when one grows in

wisdom. It must fall away; if it is cut, the poor tadpole will die. So, don't

worry about the ego; develop wisdom, contemplate on the ephemeral nature of the

objective world. Then the tail of the ego will no longer be evident.

February 7, 2004

Buddhi (intellect) is superior amongst all the faculties that a human is endowed

with. Its pre-eminence is due to its proximity to the Atman (soul) whereby the

brilliance of the Atman directly falls on it and energizes it. The Buddhi

should exercise its control over the mind, and in turn, the mind over the

senses. But what happens generally is that the Buddhi does not exercise

discrimination; the mind arrogates to itself superiority over the intellect and

the senses arrogate to themselves superiority over the mind. Consequently, the

mind proceeds in the wrong direction and the purpose of life remains

unfulfilled. To avoid this, the Buddhi has to be centered on the Atman and the

mind should act in subordination to Buddhi.

February 8, 2004

To realise God, it is not necessary to have wealth, gold, luxuries and comforts;

nor is scholarship a requisite. All that is needed is pure devotion. Without

purity of thought, word and deed, it is impossible to experience the Divine.

God cannot be realised through ostentation and self-conceit. The basic

requisite is the shedding of selfishness and possessiveness so that one can

engage oneself in actions in a disinterested spirit. Any person is entitled to

embark on this quest irrespective of age, caste or gender.

February 9, 2004

Without having unwavering faith in an omniscient and omnipotent God, life

becomes dry and drab, shadowed by despair and doom. Love for God and fear of

sin are the two primary needs for a happy life. Without these two, man becomes

a monster. Man must be ever ready to sacrifice his selfish concerns for the

sake of the larger community. There is nothing as praiseworthy as renunciation.

Be honest and detached; and with God installed in your heart, march forward to

offer your skills and talents towards fulfilling your responsibilities.

February 10, 2004

There is Divinity immanent in humanity. Understand this. Today every sphere of

human activity is polluted. Once man purifies his heart, he will find purity

everywhere. The world outside is just a reflection of your heart. If you fill

your heart with love, you will experience love everywhere. If there is hatred

in your heart, the same will get reflected outside. All that you see, hear and

experience outside is only the reflection, reaction and resound of your inner

being. Hence, it is incorrect to point out the faults and shortcomings in

others.

February 11, 2004

God certainly listens to the prayers of His devotees. Some people hesitate to

pray lest their prayers should cause inconvenience to God. They are mistaken in

their belief, for God can never be put to any inconvenience whatsoever. God has

no suffering at all. He considers the devotee's happiness as His happiness.

February 12, 2004

Anxiety is removed by placing one's faith in the Lord; the faith that tells you

that whatever happens is for the best and that the Lord's will be done.

Unquestioning acceptance is the best armour against anxiety. Sorrow springs

from egoism, the feeling that one does not deserve to be treated so badly, that

one is left helpless. When egoism goes, sorrow disappears. Ignorance is just the

mistaken identity of the body as one's real self.

February 13, 2004

If an individual wants to attain success in his life, he should have three good

qualities in him. The first is to have firm and unwavering faith in the need

for being good. The second is to be free from hatred, jealousy and ego. The

third is to be able to appreciate and enjoy when he sees another individual or

the society around him doing good work. It is through these three qualities

that a person's greatness will come to be known.

February 14, 2004

In Creation, no one object is like another. No two humans are similar, for each

has his own peculiar experiences. Why, even the same individual keeps changing

with time as he passes through infancy, youth, middle-age and finally senility.

Man must seek refuge in the changeless Paramatman (God) from which all diversity

emerges and into which it merges. Only then can man secure lasting peace and

contentment.

February 15, 2004

The greater the number of desires, the lesser the happiness you will experience.

Be contented. A discontented man loses everything; only the contented man can

experience real joy. The happiness in one's life will be in inverse proportion

to one's desires. In the journey of life, as in a railway journey, the lesser

the luggage (desires) one carries, the greater the comfort.

February 16, 2004

He who considers himself free is free indeed, and he who considers himself bound

remains bound. Constantly think yourself as being eternal, unlimited,

Consciousness-Bliss, and you will be free and happy. So long as you trap

yourself in body consciousness you are like a lion moping about in a musty

cave. Do not feel satisfied by saying, 'I am the body'. Roar and say, 'I am the

Universal Absolute. I am all that is, was and will be.' Pettiness, ego, time and

space - all will flee from your heart and you will realise your own Divinity.

February 17, 2004

Man has not taken birth merely to satisfy his mundane desires; he has come to

manifest the Divinity latent in him. That is why he is called vyakthi

(individual)- he who makes vyaktha (manifest) the Shakthi (Divine power) that

is in him. For this purpose he has come endowed with this body, and the

intelligence needed to control it and divert it to useful channels of activity.

Every man must achieve this goal by Dharmanishttha and Karmanishttha - the

steady pursuit of morality and good deeds.

February 18, 2004

You should cultivate an attitude of inseparable attachment to the Lord, who is

your very self. If He is a flower, you should feel that you are the bee that

sucks the nectar from it; if He is a tree, be a creeper that clings to it; if

He be a cliff, then feel that you are a cascade running over it; if He is the

sky, be a tiny star that twinkles in it; above all, be conscious of the truth

that you and He are bound by Supreme Love. If you feel this acutely, the

journey will be quick and the goal can be won easily.

February 19, 2004

God is the great Unseen, the vast Unknowable. Though you do not see the roots or

know how deep inside the earth they are, you pour water round the trunk, so that

it may reach them. You expect that the roots will absorb the water and the tree

will grow and yield fruit. Recognise that similarly there is God as the very

basis of Creation; pray to Him, and He will shower fruit.

February 20, 2004

Never use foul words against another. Such words should never defile your

tongue. Remember that there is God inside your heart, as well as in the hearts

of everyone around you. He sees and hears everything. When you use harsh,

cruel, angry and foul words against another, the God in you and the God in the

other person is hurt. The tongue is a tool with which you can harm yourself and

others too. So, be very careful; use it only for your good and for the good of

others. The best way to use it is by speaking kind words, repeating the Name of

God and singing His Glory.

February 21, 2004

Be thankful to the Lord that He gave you Time, as well as action to fill it

with. He gave you food, as well as hunger to relish it. But, that does not

entitle you to engage yourself in action without discrimination. When you build

a house, you install a door in front to admit all who are welcome and keep out

those are not. You do not keep the doors wide open for all and sundry to come

in as and when they please. Similarly, screen the impulses and motives that

enter your mind; keep out the demeaning, the debasing, the deleterious. Admit

only the highest wisdom of the scriptures, the wisdom culled out of the

crucible of the experience of the ancient sages.

February 22, 2004

The dualistic attitude of man is born out of a mistaken sense of separateness.

Man should realise his inherent divinity and get rid of the delusion of taking

his body to be his true Self. The body is only an instrument for realising the

Self. No great scholarship is needed for achieving this realisation. The

attitude of surrender to the Divine, dedicating all thoughts, words and actions

as an offering to the Divine will lead to Self-realisation. The bliss one

experiences in that state is beyond description.

February 23, 2004

Whatever the troubles you face, whatever the ordeals you encounter, you should

not allow your faith in God to weaken to the slightest extent. You must learn a

lesson from the Chataka bird. There may be terrible thunder and blinding

lightning in the sky, but the Chataka bird will follow the cloud to catch the

raindrops in the sky and will not go to any other source for water. Nothing

less than the pure raindrops from the cloud will satisfy the Chataka. Likewise,

you should yearn always for the bliss of God's proximity, whatever difficulties

or joys you may experience in life.

February 24, 2004

Sadhana (spiritual discipline) determines the character of a person and

character in turn determines one's destiny. Character is cultivated by

performing good actions. Actions are based on one's thoughts and intentions.

Whenever any thought arises in the mind, one should examine whether it is right

or wrong, whether it will benefit society or cause harm. Actions should be based

on such enquiry. It is wrong to blame anyone for our misfortunes. Our thoughts

and actions alone are responsible for our plight. If one entertains pure

thoughts and does all actions with firm faith in God, one will be favoured with

God's Grace.

February 25, 2004

When a river reaches the ocean, it becomes one with the ocean and the river

ceases to exist. Before it joins the ocean, the river is bound by its banks and

it has a distinct form. But when it merges in the ocean, it loses its form, name

and taste. Likewise, when "man" merges in the Infinite "I" only the Infinite "I"

remains and the limited human entity disappears.

February 26, 2004

Man is a prisoner of his senses as long as the feelings of 'I' and 'mine'

remain. Man strays into misery and pain, because he aspires for the temporary

and the trivial. He ignores the voice of God that warns and guides from within,

and pays the penalty for the transgression. Life is to be dedicated not to mere

food and drink and catering to the cravings of the senses. It has to be devoted

to the attainment of the bliss that God alone can confer.

February 27, 2004

The mind must become the servant of the intellect, not the slave of the senses.

It must discriminate and detach itself from identification with the body. The

kernel of the ripe tamarind fruit is not attached to the outer shell; likewise

the mind must be unattached to this shell called the body. Strike an unripe

tamarind fruit with a stone and you cause harm to the pulp inside; but, when

you strike the ripe fruit it is the dry rind that falls off; nothing affects

the pulp or the seed. The mature aspirant does not feel the blows of fate or

fortune; it is the unripe one who is wounded by every blow.

February 28, 2004

Wherever there is a vacuum in any heart, love flows into it and is glad that it

can fill the emptiness. It is never held back; it is offered in abundance

without guile or deceit. It does not wear the cloak of falsehood, flattery or

fear. The tendrils of love aspire to cling only to the garments of God. It

senses that God resides in His splendour in every heart. To discover that seat

of God is real devotion.

 

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BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL.