Sathya Sai Baba – A Thought For The Day – May 11th 2010

Sathya Sai Baba – A Thought For The Day – May 11th 2010

Sathya Sai Baba - A Thought For The Day

Good character is the precious jewel of human life. Human birth itself is the consequence of countless good deeds and it should not be frittered away. This chance must be utilized to the fullest extent. With deep yearning and steadfast discipline, you must endeavor to experience Divinity and redeem yourself.
~ Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai “Thought for the day” as written at Prasanthi Nilayam
May 11th 2010 – Curtesy RadioSai

Sathya Sai Baba – A Thought For The Day – May 10th 2010

Sathya Sai Baba – A Thought For The Day – May 10th 2010

Sathya Sai Baba - A Thought For The Day

Eating food is a holy ritual, a Yajna. It should not be performed during moments of anxiety or emotional upheavals. Food should be considered as medicine for the illness of hunger and as the sustenance for life. Treat each trouble you encounter as a fortunate opportunity to develop your strength of mind and toughen you spiritually.
~ Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai “Thought for the day” as written at Prasanthi Nilayam
May 10th 2010 – Curtesy RadioSai

Sathya Sai Baba – A Thought For The Day – May 8th 2010

Sathya Sai Baba – A Thought For The Day – May 8th 2010

Sathya Sai Baba - A Thought For The Day

The taste of food cannot be appreciated if the person is ill or if the mind is immersed in something else. Similarly, even if you are engaged in spiritual practices, you will not experience joy if your heart is filled with evil qualities. You can taste sweetness so long as there is sugar on the tongue. However, if there is even a tinge of bitterness on the tongue, your whole mouth tastes bitter. Therefore, those who aspire to attain the Holy Presence of the Lord must cultivate good habits, discipline and noble qualities. The usual accustomed ways of life will not lead you to God automatically. You must perform Sadhana (spiritual practices) to modify it suitably.
~ Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai “Thought for the day” as written at Prasanthi Nilayam
May 8th 2010 – Curtesy RadioSai

Passports – Lost And Found

Sathya Sai Baba - Passports Lost And Found

Passports – Lost And Found

Each one of us is in the very same situation. Any little accomplishment, any little deed is always supported by the unseen hand of our Beloved Lord. When I look back into the face of time, I find a rainbow of memories flashing before me. There is one thing I never failed throughout. It is the presence of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, saturated by His Love. Every moment is filled with His omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience. However it is for us to recognize this truth A couple of years ago, my parents along with my brother and I were taking a walk down the shopping lanes of London where we intended to make our purchases. On our way out one of the supermarkets, my father accidentally happened to put his hand into his hand baggage and to our dismay he found all our passports missing!

We were initially panic stricken, but our faith in Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba removed all our fears. We searched all around the place, retracting our steps but there was no sign of any of our passports. My father went down the lane making inquiries, but none of them brought us anywhere close to our passports. My father finally decided to register the problem with the police and started looking out for police officer.

As he proceeded, a young Englishman whom he saw for the first time came straight to him and said. “You must be looking for the lost and found department. Sir it is right over there,” and gave him some landmark. My father walked into the office of the British cops, as he had been directed to. As he opened the door of the lost and found department, he saw the officer in-charge just placing all our passports in a bag. “Thank God”, his exclamation was enough to inform the officer that those passports belong to us.

Nevertheless he looked at my father with a smile and asked, “Are these your passports?” The answer of my father in the affirmative seemed to delight the officer and on being asked how the passports landed there, he said. “Didn’t you meet anyone on the way up?”

My father said that there wasn’t any one he met. But the officer was not satisfied. He went on and said that the man who gave the passports just left a few seconds before my father came in and he said that he was the owner of the shop. My father just posed one last question on his way out with passports. “How did he look like?” The reply to the question was enough to throw us back in our seats and start thinking. Every single description matched the splendor of our Beloved Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and we were deeply thankful for all that he had done for our family.

It was about nine months after that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba appear in the dream of my father and confirmed His presence at London in a very unique way. The amount of concern Bhagavan has for each of us in much more than what the word concern literally means. The unfathomable ocean of His love goes far beyond our mind’s comprehension. There is a lot we students to learn from His actions, from His words and a lot to learn from His love.

We have to travel far beyond to be able to know actually how fortunate each of us is to be with Sathya Sai Baba. What we see of Him today is a very minute spectacle of what He actually is. Each one of us is on a long journey, “from us to ourselves” and we are immensely fortunate to have our goal. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba as our guide. And on this journey, it is my constant prayer to Bhagavan that He be with us and guide us throughout so that I may be an instrument in His hands.

- From Talk given by Shri. Deepak a Student of Swami’s University

The BPOs are calling Bharat

The BPOs are calling Bharat
MINI JOSEPH TEJASWI TIMES NEWS NETWORK , TNN 10 October 2009, 05:27am IST

College and an office job was 17-year-old Abhijit’s dream. But financial problems meant he had to join his father on the farm, helping to grow paddy Steep rentals and a high attrition rate in cities are why many BPOs are moving and sugarcane, collect fodder and sell milk. That became his life in the tiny hamlet of Baburayanakoppal, near Srirangapatna in Karnataka.

Until three months ago, when an abandoned rice mill in the village was renovated and became the office for a 100-seater BPO (business process outsourcing) unit.

Word was soon out in the village that there were jobs to be had. Though he neither spoke nor understood English, Abhijit decided to give it a shot. He applied, wrote a test, was taken in and trained. Today, he’s part of the Indian BPO army, once seen as an urban opportunity accessible only to educated, English-speaking boys and girls.

Abhijit’s employer B S Venugopal, a director of Mpro Solutions, says though the training takes time, it is worth the effort. ”We did not expect to find readily employable talent in rural areas. They are raw with no language or communication skills but eager to learn.”

A few weeks into his training, Abhijit tells TOI Crest in grammatically correct English, ”It’s not that a farmer’s life was a bad one, but farming doesn’t pay enough for a comfortable living. In my case, I had no education and didn’t think I could be anything other than a farmer.” Now as part of his job, he makes calls to prospective donors from a database seeking funds for NGOs. His salary is Rs 3,500 a month.

Abhijit isn’t the only one taking advantage of BPOs going rural. Even as many outsourcing firms based in cities put a freeze on hiring, many new units are opening up in villages and towns in the south.

Karnataka’s IT/BT secretary Ashok Kumar C Manoli says the companies are bringing technology and financial empowerment to rural youth. ”The idea is to create a rural BPO cluster , which can be integrated with similar projects across the country,” he says. ” We want to promote jobs for rural youth who have some computer knowledge and belong to small towns with a one lakh population. To start with, each of these centres will have 100 seats,” he adds.

Abhijit’s colleagues at Mpro – Mahesh, Jagadish , an orphan, Soumya and a dozen others – are also taking advantage of this economic transformation. But what will they do with the extra money? Abhijit wants to help his father buy more cows. His friends, too, want to help their parents out but they also want to buy mobile phones and bicycles.

”The initiative will change the economic fabric of the countryside,” Manoli says. BPOs will make youth in the hinterland financially independent as they did in the urban areas. They will have money for marriage, to pay off debts or buy sewing machines and cows. More importantly, it will stop the mass exodus of young people from villages to cities seeking employment, he says.

It is the cost of business in big cities – exorbitant rentals, steep wages, high attrition – that has many companies looking towards the village. Mpro Solutions is the first to become operational under the Karnataka government’s ambitious rural BPO scheme. The state plans to set up a hundred such units to create one lakh jobs in the next four years. A few weeks ago another centre was opened at Gundlupet, while two centres are being readied in Salgame and Shiggaon in Karnataka. Also in the pipeline are eight more in Sirsi, Huliyur, Chikbalapur, Hosadurga, Pavagada, Mundargi and Devadurg in rural Karnataka.

The state is rolling out the red carpet for those adventurous enough to go rural. It’s offering financial incentives of up to Rs 20 lakh and a per employee training incentive of Rs 10,000. Manoli says the response from entrepreneurs has been overwhelming. Infosys and Wipro, too, have shown interest.

Bangalore-based BPO company RuralShores, which already has a centre in Bagepalli, is in the process of entering rural areas in Tamil Nadu and Bihar. Xchanging, which acquired Cambridge Solutions, and Hinduja Global Solutions too are venturing into semi-urban places like Shimoga in Karnataka and Durgapur in West Bengal.

Other southern states too are developing business models to encourage private players to venture beyond the cities. Tamil Nadu already has rural BPO units and is planning another 100 rural units in the next few years.

Kerala is looking at a hub-and-spoke model. The government aims to set up 100 rural BPOs at the panchayat and district level in 14 districts over the next three years. The first rural BPOs have already come up in Perinad and Kadakkal in Kollam district.

Sai Seva Business Solutions, a rural BPO unit, was set up in Puttaparthi (the abode of Sathya Sai Baba), a couple of years ago by management students of the Sri Sathya Sai University. HDFC Bank outsources part of its work on data capture and profiling of new accounts to them. Tata Business Support Services has set up a BPO in Mithapur in Gujarat, near the manufacturing unit of Tata Chemicals.

A country-wide rural BPO drive is expected to create employment opportunities for millions of rural Indians, allowing them a share in the country’s $12-billion BPO pie.

Times Of India Reference

Fill Every Moment With Quality

Sathya Sai Baba

Fill Every Moment With Quality

In March this year I was privileged to be in the residence of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba along with devotees. As we waited eagerly for the sudden flash of the Red Robe, He appeared beaming with a smile; his eyes flashed “Vidyullekha”. I waited in grateful expectancy for events to unfold themselves. In Baba’s Presence we learn the art of waiting for things to happen; anything unexpected can and will happen!

He suddenly turned towards me and said: “So, you have been transferred to Bangalore!” He was asking me this question after several months of my transfer even after I had first reported to Him before taking charge of my assignment! Like others I have also wondered why Baba the ‘Omnipresent’, the ‘Omniscient’, asks such questions and sometimes even feigns ignorance! I have found an answer which I believe is true.

Supposing Baba starts telling in front of everybody about us, what is in our mind and all our deeds and misdeeds, how many of us will have the courage to go to Him again? If He reveals all the time His Divinity and the attributes of “Omnipresence” few of us will dare go to him; the skin-deep facade of a devotee which we all maintain even in His Presence, is so fragile that it will be shattered and there will be no scope for improvement and the ‘transformation’ for which He has incarnated. So, in His mercy He gives us the impression that He is merely human and envelopes us with this Maya that is essential for our transformation which, unfortunately, is slow. ‘Kramakramena’, ‘gradually’ you will have to give up your undesirable habits, He says in His infinite patience!

Returning to the occasion when He asked me the question, I said, “Yes! Swami” and I thought that was the best occasion to volunteer additional information. “Swami I have only 71 days more before I retire.” I hoped that He would say, “Yes! Bangaroo! Time will pass and you will join Swami’s service.” He suddenly turned round and looked at me with those penetrating eyes. Out came the Sadguru’s mantra: “Whether it is 71 days, 71 hours, or 71 minutes or 71 seconds, quality is most important” and in His characteristic style. He turned round and conveyed the same message to all. “Quality is important, isn’t it?” He asked them, His way of confirmation.

This is Sathya Sai Baba’s method; He uses all occasions to convey important lessons of spirituality in daily living by such mantra. He aims the mantra not only at the direct recipient but also at others who might care to learn the lesson. One will miss the import of His statements if one thinks that it was meant only for the individual who happened to be the target..

Sathya Sai Baba shook me from my stupor. He has repeatedly said that all work is His; there is nothing like Sai service and government Service.. All that you do is for Sai only; in fact it is for yourself, for awakening the Sai within you. Not that I did not know these teachings of His. But again I had forgotten the lesson and the ever vigilant Sadguru had given me the lesson again at the right moment.

What a great formula for Ananda! What is important is not what happens after 71 days. What is important is that till that last second we do not forget that it is His work and that we should carry out the work assigned with the highest quality since it is His Worship through whatever He has assigned. “The past is beyond recovery. Those days are gone. The future you are not sure of. The given moment is NOW! Sanctify it with holy thoughts, words and deeds,” He has declared. “Quality” means sanctifying every moment with holy thoughts, words and deeds. “The most important thing in life is not doing what you like, but liking what you have to do”, Sathya Sai Baba has told us. These are the keys to spirituality in daily living.

Can we do this in the office, in the factory, in the kitchen or in any other vocation and avocation? Yes! We can; we should try to bear in mind some of the other mantras He has given us. We can sanctify our thoughts, words and deeds if they are not motivated by the six enemies which the ancients had correctly identified, Kama (passion), krodha (anger), lobha (greed) moha (attachment) , mada (pride), matsarya (envy). Difficult? Yes but not impossible if we try. Read any book on modern psychology; you will learn that all our diseases are due to these six enemies; our diseases are psychosomatic caused by these passions.

There is another aspect to filling every moment with “quality.” We must be fully involved in enjoying the quality of the work we do! That itself becomes “fulfillment” rather than the fruit of the act. In fact the real fruit of the act is the sweetness of the process. The game is more important than whether we win or lose! That is the real meaning of the Lord’s statement, “Work alone is thy concern; not the fruits thereof.”

Knowing that we are all forgetful I pray: “Baba give me the wisdom to remember your mantra when it is most needed and fill every moment with the highest quality, for which you have endowed me with abilities..”

(Extracted from an article by M.V.N.Murthy, published in Sanathana Sarathi, June, 1981)

Sathya Sai Organisation Of Australia In Fiji

Sathya Sai Organisation Of Australia In Fiji

Free checks draw crowd
By Mereseini Marau
Saturday, August 22, 2009

A TEAM of 32 doctors and nurses provided free medical service to people of Navua and surrounding areas at the Lomary Catholic Primary School on Thursday.

The team includes six general practitioners, four nurses, three dentists, one dental processor, two eye specialists, three pharmacists and two gynaecologists. They are members of Sathya Sai Organisation of Australia — a non-governmental organisation.

Team leader Dr Gunu Naker said they saw more than 3000 people at Tavua, Ba, Sigatoka and Navua.

“Many people come for eye check, blood pressure, heart check and skin rash,” Dr Naker said.

“Some problems we had were people didn’t bring their medication and glasses, so we are unable to offer much advice whether they should continue with that medication or start with the ones we give,” he said.

The main aim of the group was to provide free medical service to people in rural areas, who would otherwise could not go to hospital because they can’t pay for transportation.

“We met the Ministry of Health and they informed us which areas needed medical attention and we visited them.”

Ranadi Rokosalu had a free check at Lomary.

“I am happy because some of us from the interior find it hard to go to Suva for expert advice.”

The team was in Nadi yesterday.

Fiji Times Online Reference
Official Sathya Sai Baba Website

Sai camp provides free care
22-Aug-2009 11:25 AM

MORE than five hundred people of Nadi took advantage of a free medical camp set up by medical professionals associated with the Satya Sai Organization in Australia.

Team leader Doctor Gunu Naker who is a general practitioner based in Australia is in the country with a team of more than twenty highly trained specialists and general practitioner doctors.

Doctor Naker told Fiji Daily Post that the medical camp trip to Fiji which started last year is getting popular every year.

“Last year we were able to see over three thousand patients,” Doctor Naker said.

He said all medical services including specialist diagnosis given to patients were absolutely free.

“The Satya Sai Organization is not a religious but a spiritual organization and service to mankind is an absolute priority,” Doctor Naker said.

He said the medical wing of the SSO in Australia has a team of thirty medical professionals and there is a sister team based in New Zealand as well. “Our Kiwi counterparts have been coming over here for the past four years now and they mostly concentrate in Vanua Levu but they have spent two days in Viti Levu during their last visit as well,” Doctor Naker said.

He said the free medical camp this year had taken place following a medical conference which was held at Dr. Umanand Prasad Medical School based at the University of Fiji. “We were very fortunate to have had the company of the Honourable Minister for Health Dr. Neel Sharma in the conference as well.”

He said the medical conference was well attended by the medical fraternity and is gaining momentum each year.

“The conference and free medical camp will now be an ongoing thing because it was very important to have a good medical facility so that everyone benefits in the end.”

“Students from the school have been joining us as well ever since we started last year and it is nice to have them amongst us as they get to learn a lot from their experiences,” Doctor Naker said.

He also thanked the management and staff of Andrews Primary School for providing the venue for yesterday’s medical camp.

By SHALENDRA PRASAD

Fiji Daily Post Reference
Official Sathya Sai Baba Website

300 Year Old Shiva Lingam Found in Puttaparthi

300 Year Old Shiva Lingam Found in Puttaparthi

Om Sairam dearest family,

on 23rd July 2009 there was some work being done in one farmer’s field just behind Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram in Peddakammavari Palli road and the work men found this less than 3 feet Shivalingam.

In no time the news spread in Puttaparthi and hundreds of devotees started going there and it was talk of the town. Puttaparthi has little bit of history before Sathya Sai Baba’s birth in this holy tiny hamlet… The King Sri Krishnadevaraya who had his base in Penukonda (1 hour from Parthi) had built some temples around Puttaparthi in Bukkapatnam and he was also instrumental in building two lakes in Puttaparthi area.

The emergence of Lingam was a big news for Puttaparthians and the media from all over the state came here to cover the news. The archeological director was also called to check the Shivalingam. The primary investigation confirms that that lingam was of 17 th century and the Archeological director also didn’t write off the possibility of a temple some where closer by this place.

Devotees were queuing up to see this lingam. Many offered Milk, Ghee and other offerings as abhishekam and there were also high profile visitors from the ashram to see this lingam. The flower and coconut vendors who usually sell near Ganesh gate shifted to this new place and it was totally a festive atmosphere around the Lingam place. The auto rickshaw drivers were all driving up and down with devotees to this place.

The upper part of the lingam was detachable and many pandits are of the opinion that since the upper part was removed, it needs to be installed in a better place and a puja is to be done to get the power back into the Lingam.

Here are some photos of the Lingam…

With pranams at the lotus feet of our beloved Lord

Satish Naik.

300 Year Old Shiva Linga Unearthed At Puttaparthi Behind Sri Sathya Sai Baba Ashram

300 Year Old Shiva Lingam Unearthed In Puttaparthi

- Curtesy SaiBabaNews Yahoo Group

Bhagawan’s Divine Discourse On Eid-Ul-Fitr 1978 In The Mosque At Puttaparthi

Sathya Sai Baba On Ramzan

Bhagawan’s Divine Discourse On Eid-Ul-Fitr 1978 In The Mosque At Puttaparthi

Ramazan is the month when the Holy Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It was a divine Communication, a Bhagavad Vani, reaching him through waves or Tarangas of Divine Vibrations. The Vedas too were revealed in the same manner by God to the Rishis. The Bible, the Avesta, and the other great scriptures of other religions also had similar Divine Inspiration as the reason for their validity. Since the Qur’an originated from God, it cannot be changed or modified, to suit ‘changed’ conditions. They are all eternal verities. The Qur’an contains expositions of the five vital principles or pancha prana of human life: mercy, truth, sacrifice, love and tolerance. These principles, really basic to the good life are emphasised in all religious texts of humanity. If one assimilates the truths declared in the Qur’an, they can live in full concord with all others. No religion praises violence or falsehood.

Fasting was laid down during the Ramazan, in order to make people experience the benefits of sense control and in order to cleanse the spirit and the passions of man, so that he may be rendered fit to approach God. Fasting is also referred to as Upavas; Upa means ‘near’ and vas means `living’. So, Upavas means, living very near God. The Ramazan fast is intended to enable Muslims to set aside all sensory desires and to spend an entire month in the Holy Presence of God. As man gets the cool heartening breeze when he approaches the air conditioner, or fan, so too when man approaches God, his sorrows will vanish and he will have his good aspects flourish by His Grace. Cultivate during this Month of God all the Godly qualities, charity, unity, love, service, detachment, tolerance. And, see that you practise them, not only at home, but, spread the joy outside your household also.

Fasting entails not merely abstaining from food and drink from sun rise to sun set, but, the mastery of the more difficult discipline of giving up violence, falsehood, anger, envy, and the maligning of others. One may have to face ridicule and persecution, obstructions and troubles when he decides to lead the good, holy life. Prophet Muhammad was persecuted thus and he had to leave Mecca for Medina. Jesus was crucified for the meek and the mute. As the Lord’s Will assumes the form of a tree—the Kalpavriksha—in order to be a perennial source of sustenance and sweetness to others, great persons have suffered voluntarily, for the sake of their beneficent beliefs. In spite of hurdles and handicaps, Prophet Muhammad did not give up his conviction; He declared that there was only One God and that His Name was Allah. He commanded his disciples to serve mankind, and treat all others as fellow beings, children of the same God. Study the Gift of God to man, namely the Quran and holds its teachings as valid for all time, because they are universal and basic.

The Event
Puttaparthi village in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, India, has become a holy place for millions all over the World, since Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born there and since Prasanthi Nilayam (the Abode of Peace), the hub of the world wide Sai Revolution (through the revival and promotion of Truth, Righteousness, Peace and Love) is also situated there. Bhagawan found that the Muslims of Puttaparthi had to trek about four miles to Bukkapatnam every time they had to pray in a mosque, since they did not have a place of worship in their own village and hence built a mosque for in the village, truly an architectural gem, charming, simple and spacious.

The mosque was completed and consecrated in time for the Ramazan festival in August 1978. Sathya Sai Baba paid a visit to the Mosque, on the Id Festival day. A large assemblage of Indian and Foreign devotees and also villagers of all faiths were present to share in the joy that Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba gave to the Muslims that day, when He visited the Mosque. Sri. G. Fakhruddin the Convenor of the village Mosque committee while paying the homage of welcome said that the Light and Love that shone in and through the founders of all religions were physically present in Sathya Sai Baba today. He expressed eternal gratitude to Bhagawan Baba for showing the Muslims the Pathway to God and for re-enforcing their belief in the universal aspects of all religions. Sathya SaiBaba then granted His discourse in Telugu which was understood by all the Muslims present there. (From Sanathana Sarathi, Aug, 1978)

Reference

A Conversation with Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

A Conversation with Sri Sathya Sai Baba

The following conversation between a devotee and Sathya Sai Baba took place in Prasanthi Nilayam many years ago and was first published in an early issue of the Sanathana Sarathi, the official ashram magazine.

Devotee: Swami! The world is very cruel to me.

Sathya Sai Baba: That is its nature. The purpose of the world is frustration; it has to engender need. When the need is strong enough, the individual seeks fulfilment.

Devotee: And fails!

Sathya Sai Baba: Only when he seeks fulfilment without! Within him, he can get it. The within is accessible always; it is ever responsible. There is pain only so long as attachment for outer forms remains. Ultimate relief from pain can come only with the loss of ego, the neutralisation of that which reacts to something as pain and something else as pleasure, whose memory, whose conditioning, helps to recognise the dualities of joy and grief.

Devotee: But the world, Swami?

Sathya Sai Baba: The world is pain. Expect nothing from the world but that. I willed the totality of your conditioned existence to be pain, in order to draw you to me.

Devotee: Which I can, at best, only hope to attain.

Sathya Sai Baba: God asks for neither hope nor despair. They are subject to relativity. Universal Being is beyond both hope and despair, both certainty and doubt. It knows no lingering in its conclusions. It is ever flowing, in all directions, and in none of them.

Devotee: What then shall be my direction?

Sathya Sai Baba: Take what works today for today. What works tomorrow for tomorrow. One day at a time, each day for itself, each moment for itself, without a past, without memory, without conclusions.

Devotee: Conclusions?

Sathya Sai Baba: Yes. Conclusions bind; they press on the mind. The newborn baby is not confined to conclusions. All conclusions enslave. Most men are slaves to the conclusions into which they have fallen.

Devotee: Does that mean I have to give up my practice of concentration?

Sathya Sai Baba: The question that bothers you is one of fixity. You tried to fix your thought and attention on a word and later on a form, but you discovered that nothing lasts, that everything has to change. But I tell you; awareness can remain, even when form subsides, even when the word melts away.

Devotee: I find it difficult to hold my attention on form or word.

Sathya Sai Baba: Because when you try to meditate, the very trial invites the success-failure conflict onto the scene. You say to yourself, it is good to meditate on this and not that, or to meditate on that is wrong or foolish. Practise choicelessness; no objective, no intention. Be yourself. Choose no particular form, for all are equally His. Choose no particular word or sound, for all are His.

Devotee: I am often tossed between contradictory beliefs.

Sathya Sai Baba: Contradictions are inevitable. It is the very nature of this world and of the mind. But you can choose, either to be buffeted endlessly by the apparent contradictions or to remain in the calm centre of the cyclone. This is the problem of all problems, the problem of peripheral or central being.

Devotee: The circumference or the centre, the rim or the hub of the wheel?

Sathya Sai Baba: Yes. The hub is calm, steady, unmoved. But the mind will be drawn along the spokes, the objective desires, to revolve over mud and stone, sand and thorns. It will not believe that it can get bliss from the centre, rather than from the circumference, without undergoing a rough journey over turbulent terrain.

Devotee: Ultimately, it means the conquest of the mind?

Sathya Sai Baba: Learn to let all the conflicts spawned by the mind play themselves out, and cancel each other out. Be the witness to the holocaust. The ultimate solution to the conflict is not decision or even choice, but passive being. Dare to remain inconclusive. See the endless quandaries of the mind as a divine leela, God’s sport, as the natural function of the bundle of desires called mind. Do not believe in mind; do not rally to its assertions and appetites. Watch the mind from a distance; do not get involved in its tumblings and turnings. Then everything becomes insignificant. When everything recedes into meaninglessness, you are in the hub, in equanimity.

Devotee: Swami, you are the hub, the spokes and the rim.

Sathya Sai Baba: Do not be concerned with who I am! Concern yourself with who you are and how you can be ever aware of that truth. Do not be a willing captive of the endless stratagems of the mind. Abstain from all that draws you into its web. I will lead you, if you rely on me. The alternatives of the world will not bring you happiness, for the mind, which revels in alternatives, is but a will-of-the-wisp, flitting before your vision. I do not judge you for what is never yours, really. Your imperfection is no obstacle for me.

Devotee: I confess that I have not always observed the rules of conduct of the Sathya Sai Organisation.

Sathya Sai Baba: Your mind keeps asking for rules. But when you get the rules, you find you cannot keep them. Rules engender rigidity, they force. They do not bloom out of love or spread love. There is always a way of doing a thing without the strain of a rule. See how unperturbed I am with your restlessness! I live thus, so that I may afford a lesson for you to learn.

Devotee: I am restless, Swami, because I yearn for rest and do not get it.

Sathya Sai Baba: It is your reaction to restlessness that is bad, not the restlessness itself. Restlessness is only the rise and fall of a wave on the ocean that you are. Nothing matters, so long as the depths are secure. Success is not important: failure does not matter. The river of eternity is flowing ever into the ocean of the Supreme Will.

Devotee: How long am I to be torn apart from that Supreme Will?

Sathya Sai Baba: You are a fraction of that Supreme Will. That is why you are afflicted with the hunger to seek It and to merge in It and to find fulfilment and bliss thereby. Turning to the world for solace and sustenance to appease that hunger has been tried by countless generations, including your own, but the hunger is gnawing still.

Devotee: What then is the proper reaction to the attractions of the world?

Sathya Sai Baba: Let go. Don’t cling. Be still. Establish yourself in the homelessness of the mind; physical homelessness will not earn the victory. There are many spiritual aspirants still caught in the coils of greed, envy, pride and power seeking. They have not escaped from their homes. They have built prisons around themselves. I describe homelessness of the mind as mind abiding nowhere.

Devotee: And wandering everywhere?

Sathya Sai Baba: Do not exclude anything. Be the witness of everything. The exclusive cannot endure. God is all. Your restlessness came from exclusion, the pressure exerted by the excluded into the area from which it was excluded. All is God; how can you push God out of His Domain? Your mind concludes that the cause for the restlessness is whatever concerns it at the time. The actual cause is not that. You limit God by your assumptions, hence the restlessness. For you too are divine, and your reality protests against that limitation.

Devotee: Swami! Sometimes I feel so sad that I am so strange, so different in habits from the rest of those that come to you for succour.

Sathya Sai Baba: If your path contrasts entirely with those around you, believe that it is my will for you. Every way is my way and ways seemingly indirect may be the most direct for some spiritual seekers. For me there are no impossible cases, no incorrigible cases. Practise choicelessness as hitherto prescribed. Choicelessness is constant contentment.

Questioner: Swami, I am addicted to tea drinking, which hurts me. How can I stop this practice?

Sathya Sai Baba: Heaven is not refused to those who drink tea! A rajasic person is rendered hyperactive by tea, but to an invalid it is a welcome lift. But do not adore tea as the only reality. Now with regard to these habits that have gripped you, there are two methods by which you can discard them. The first is deprivation, denial. This can yield only temporary success. When one’s determination relaxes, the habit reasserts itself and it becomes difficult to resist. The second method is to become so absorbed in something far more pleasing that the habit falls off by itself. Remember, what is transient is not important. What is important is eternal. My prescriptions are varied; they differ from person to person, from stage to stage, even in the case of the same person. All prescriptions work. Let people come to me through Bhajan, through Japa, through Meditation, through Mantras, through Tantra or Seva ­ as I ordain. Every one will come to me; everyone has to come to me. There are no exceptions.

Devotee: We rely on your grace Swami, we yearn for it. Make us aware of it.

Sathya Sai Baba: I never asked you to earn me. I want only that you should need me. Your path is not one of merit. Bring the recurring desires of your mind to me, every time they emerge. They cannot shock me, for I willed them! Bring me your confusion, your fear, your craving, your anxiety, your inability to love the world, your hesitation to serve, your jealousy, all the deficiencies that defy your spiritual disciplines.

Devotee: How are we to do seva if we feel the urge to do so? What if the urge is absent?

Sathya Sai Baba: There are many ways to serve the world. You can serve, if not actively, at least by your serenity. Everyone need not do all things. Your Western heritage reveres active work. But if your being tends towards serenity and solitude, take it as the best. Do not be sorry for it. Only a small minority can delight in serenity and remain still. God has willed it so, otherwise, how could the world function? If stillness is your destiny, dare to be so. If you are a recluse, be a recluse, but a recluse with me. You may not be a saint, but you can peacefully be nothing. Let each be as he is, remembering, however, his source and his reality. None is as he is but for me.

Devotee: I have yet much to learn.

Sathya Sai Baba: You wish to learn from me. Well, if you are preoccupied by the body’s needs, by the arrangements for its travelling, its accommodation and the food it demands, time will fly. That student learns best and fastest who does not spend his time constantly shifting from one classroom to the next. You will learn everything worth knowing in my classroom. I will expose you to all states of being, so that you may learn to rest in me in all of them. There are no insurmountable obstacles to me; there are no pre-requisites for me. I am unconditional.

Devotee: But you are absent so often and away for so long at your headquarters.

Sathya Sai Baba: Always, at every time, at every place, I am where you need me. All things without are subject to the limitation of time and space, to the material laws of Nature. My outer form is no exception! If you would perceive my physical form, it must come within the range of your gaze, so position yourself so that you can see it. And even then, it may not gaze at you. But, I am omnipresent! The limitations of the body and the outer senses do not hold for the inner vision. Therein, you can see me at any time and any place and receive darshan. The outer vision is purposely insufficient, instantaneous, transitory, casual, so that you may crave for and accomplish the inner darshan. If I have separated you from my physical image off and on, it was only to bring you to me and to establish my presence within you. That alone will replenish you and refresh you, I know. None of my absences was a rejection or rebuke. So far as you are concerned, I intended them all. And, always, I willed that you return to me.