Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Now we understand from your divine discourse and by your grace how

important devotion is. But, faith is the base of devotion. How is one

to cultivate faith, Swami?

 

What a foolish question you have asked! What do you mean by saying

cultivating faith? Can you cultivate it? Is that a commodity to be

purchased from a shop? It can neither be given nor received. Faith is

your natural quality. In fact vis'vasa, faith is your s'vasa, breath.

Without it there is a total stoppage of your breath.

 

Just think for a moment how you carry on your daily routine with or

without faith. You will soon notice that your every action, both

mundane and spiritual, is based only on faith. You give your clothes,

costly shirts and safari suits to a washer man in full faith that he

would bring them back after washing and ironing. If you suspect that

he would run away with your clothes, will you give them to him? Most

valuable gold is given to goldsmiths to make jewellery out of it in

good faith that they would do so. Even if a trace of doubt arises in

your mind, will you ever hand over valuable gold? You go to a barber

for a haircut. Do you for a moment entertain the feeling that he

would put his knife in the neck instead of on the head? You bend your

head in good faith in front of the barber to have your hair cut. So

also in good faith, a patient will lie down on the operation table

and allow himself to be operated upon by the surgeon. Do you doubt

that your life is not safe in his hands? No. So be he a dhobi or a

goldsmith or a barber or a doctor for that matter, all transactions

are made in good faith. So faith is a natural gift of God to mankind.

To be faithless is unnatural and artificial. But the pity of it is

that you have full faith in everyone but not in God. Isn't that very

unfortunate?

 

Devotion and faith are like the two eyes of a living being or the two

wheels of a bicycle or the two wings of a bird. Without faith, as we

say, even an ant can't move an inch. A bird cannot fly high without

faith. A bird perches on a branch. The branch may be drooping or

swinging, yet the bird is not bothered. Why? It is because the bird

has full faith in its wings on which it relies but not on the branch.

So, everything depends on your faith.

 

How do you know your father? It is your mother, who has the authority

to show you your father and you have full faith in your mother. If

not, there is no way to know your father. You know the dates and the

days from a calendar and you go by what the calendar indicates.

Otherwise, how do you know that today is Monday, the 14th May? The

day has not appeared in front of you with a signboard on the forehead

indicating the day of the week and the date. You have full faith in

all that you listen to from the All India Radio news bulletin and the

various news columns that you go through in a newspaper. So much so,

you believe what you hear on the radio, watch on the T.V., read in

the newspapers, but you don't believe our rsivakya or the sayings and

teachings of our sages and saints of yore embodied in the Vedas and

other holy scriptures. The Vedas are called is'variya, apauru seya ,

compositions of God. You don't have faith in them. How strange and

unfortunate it is! Think over it for sometime.