Sai message for the day

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Many spiritual practices are suggested, such as, namasmarana singing

the glory of God, dhyana, meditation, puja, etc. But, still total

satisfaction is not derived out of any of them. We are not able to

practise and follow continuously even one of them. Dissatisfaction

over not being able to succeed and frustration about not getting the

rewards for the little we do, are overpowering us. Why is it

happening like this? Kindly show us the way.

 

You have to plough the land, remove the weeds, manure and water it.

Isn't it so? Without tilling the land, removing the weeds and

watering, even if you sow the best of seeds, will it be of any help?

Similarly, if you want to achieve the four purus arthas, objectives

of life, you should follow anyone of the nine paths of devotion,

adopt the eightfold path of yogic practices, astaga yoga, follow the

nine types of devotion, navavidha bhaktimarga, worship properly and

follow the spiritual path scrupulously.

 

You should cultivate four main qualities; which are the pre-

requisites of a devotee of God. The first one is maitri,, friendship,

second, karuna, compassion, the third mudita, feeling happy at

others' progress, and the fourth quality is upeksa, detachment. These

are necessary for spiritual advancement. Maitri is the first one. If

you are friendly to the higher-ups, there is every possibility that

those people put you under their control. If you are a friend to

those who are inferior to you, there is every scope for you to

dominate them. In either case, friendship will not continue long.

Therefore, friendship must be among equals.

 

Karuna is the second one. You can't be compassionate towards all. Be

compassionate towards the poor, needy, less fortunate, handicapped

and sick as well as those who are less educated than you and are

inferior to you in rank, position and property. If you do so, your

compassion will be valued most and it will deepen increasingly.

Mudita is the third one. You should not feel jealous of those who are

better off than you. You should not have any bad feelings towards

those who are more fortunate than you. You should, on the other hand,

feel even happier at their progress and advancement. This is mudita.

The fourth one is upeksa The opposite of upeksa is apeksa. Apeksa

means attachment. Upeksa means detachment.

 

You should never be positively disposed towards bad people. You

should not support designers of evil or those who indulge in bad

deeds. You should never develop friendship with an evil-minded person

or a person with bad behaviour. With these four qualities you can

achieve the objectives of life, the purusarthas. Hence, be friendly

with your equals, compassionate towards the poor and needy, be happy

at others' progress and keep away from bad people. In fact these four

qualities may be said to be the objectives of life, the purusarthas.

To cultivate them, purity of heart is necessary. To feel that the

very same one God is present in all living creatures and living

beings is the way to develop purity of heart. You have to purify your

tamasika, bestial qualities and rajasika, emotional or passionate

nature. You have to develop that kind of steadiness and purity of

mind and heart.

 

You will not be able to see clearly the reflection of the sun or of

the moon alike in containers filled with different kinds of water.

One container may have very dirty water where you can't see the

reflection of the sun or the moon clearly. This is how the tamasika

quality acts, cutting you off from reality. In another container,

water may be found shaking and not still. Then also the reflection of

the sun will not be clear. This is the rajasika quality. But, a

container filled with pure water, which is also steady, helps you to

see the object reflected clearly in it. This is the effect of

sattvika quality. Similarly, though the same atma is present in all,

you are not able to recognise and experience it due to the

differences in your body, mind and intellect.

 

Then, the question is how to achieve the pious quality or sattvika

nature and the purity of heart or cittas'huddhi to recognise and

experience awareness of atma? He who can find out his own faults and

others' merits can keep his heart steady and pure. If you can

identify your own mistakes and rectify them, it doesn't matter

wherever you are.

 

Take a simple example. Your room may be full of mosquitoes. But if

you have a mosquito net you will not be affected by their presence

and you can sleep well. On the other hand, if there are mosquitoes

inside in the net, how can you sleep? Whose mistake is it? Similarly,

see that there are no mistakes in you. Always remember that sadhana

is intended for devotion and steadfastness. Sadhana done for selfish

gains will be of no use and it can never give you bliss, peace and

satisfaction. You can't do sadhana in such a case intensely and

fervently.

 

The Ramayana explains this very clearly. After his return from his

uncle Kekaya's kingdom and on coming to know of the death of his

father, King Dasaratha, Bharata approached his mother Kaikeyi and

asked her about the reason for his death. Kaikeyi said, " My dear son,

I am responsible for the king's death. For your benefit and to make

you the king of Ayodhya, I asked your father to grant me the two

boons he had promised to give me a long time ago. As the first boon,

I asked that you be crowned and as the second, Rama be sent to the

forest. Your father couldn't bear the separation from Rama and so he

died " .

 

On listening to this, Bharata became very furious. He said, " Oh!

Wicked woman! Do you know what you did? Are you foolish? Do you think

that you can cut off a tree and plant its branches to grow? Don't you

know that Rama is a tree? " In her view Kaikeyi was right in doing

like that, but to Bharata it was very cruel. Today, what you are

doing is exactly like that. You are cutting off the tree of divinity

and planting the branches of prakrti, nature. This is not proper. So,

any sadhana is useless if there is no devotion supported by

steadfastness. Without these basic qualities of maitri, karuna,

mudita and upeksa you can't achieve anything. You can't have peace;

bliss and self-satisfaction. Therefore, for a spiritual life you

should acquire these four qualities.