Faith:

Quotes from Sathya Sai Speaks (SSS)

Once Krishna and Arjuna were going together along the open road. Seeing a bird in the sky, Krishna asked Arjuna, "Is that a dove?". He replied, "Yes, it is a dove". He asked Arjuna, "Is it an eagle?". Arjuna replied promptly, "Yes, it is an eagle". "No, Arjuna, it looks like a crow to Me. Is it not a crow?," asked Krishna. Arjuna replied, "I am sorry, it is a crow beyond doubt". Krishna laughed and chided him for his agreeing to whatever suggestion was given. But Arjuna said, "For me, Your words are far more weighty than the evidence of my eyes; you can make it a crow, a dove or an eagle and when you say it is a crow, it must be one." Implicit faith is the road to spiritual success. SSS1,Chap.1

Sathyabhama once asked Krishna, "Why are you doing things like ordinary men? Yudhishtira, the eldest of the Pandavas is the best of the brothers but you hobnob always with Arjuna, whose reputation is not above board." Her faith was not steady! What do people know of the motives that prompt the Lord and His actions? Some found fault with Naaradha for repeating the name of the Lord, always, without intermission. But until Saayujyam or mergence, the name has to be used; the idea of separation will end only with merger, not before that. Do not waver or doubt when once you are convinced. Seek to understand and satisfy yourself. After that, do not be misled. When the sun is over your head there will be no shadow; similarly, when faith is steady in your head it should not cast any shadow of doubt. SSS1,Chap.3

How to lead the Divine Life? There is no special membership that entitles you to it. Every struggle to realize the Unity behind all the multiplicity is a step on the path of Divine Life. You have to churn the milk if you wish to separate and identify the butter that is immanent in it. So too, you have to carry on certain processes of thought and action in order to get the hard core of faith that this world is a funny mixture of Sathyam and Asathyam (real and unreal), that it is mithya (false), in fact. The Divine Life does not admit of the slightest dross in character or delusion in intellect. So, people dedicated to it must emphasise this by precept and example. Wipe out the root causes of anxiety and fear and ignorance. Then only can the true personality of man shine forth. Anxiety is removed by faith in the Lord; the faith that tells you that whatever happens is for the best and that the Lord's Will be done. Quiet acceptance is the best armor against anxiety; not the acceptance of the weak, but the courageous acceptance of the heroic. Sorrow springs from egoism, the feeling that you do not deserve to be treated so badly, that you are left helpless. When egoism goes, sorrow disappears. Ignorance is just a mistake, mistaken identity of the body as the self ! SSS1,Chap.4

The devotee who spoke first here now was, let me tell you, denying God for 25 years and it is only since five years, after seeing Me, that he has changed. Of course, many people have had no experience which could change them and so they are not to be blamed for their want of faith. So too, this Seshagiri Rao here was finding fault with his son and daughters for coming to Puttaparthi, and himself for long refusing to come ! One day, at Bangalore, there was a function in the house opposite his, for I had gone there. During Bhajana (group singing of devotional songs), this man hesitantly crossed the road and peeped into the hall and I went forward and called him and made him sit near Me. I asked him to come to Puttaparthi and invited him to 'examine' and 'experience'. He has been with Me ever since; it is now 18 years since he first came here. This is just the reason why I came to sow the seeds of faith, in religion and in God. SSS1,Chap.5

Engage yourselves in good deeds, good company and good thoughts. Fix your attention on the goal. You have not realised yet the secret of this Advent. You are indeed lucky, more fortunate than many others. It is only when Yasodha found every length of rope a little short to go round His belly that she discovered He was the Lord. So too, you will realize every description of My Mahima (Divine Glory) a little too short of the actuality; and then you will get convinced. Meanwhile, if you study the Shaasthras and know the characteristics of the Avathaar of the Lord, you might get a glimpse of the Truth regarding Me. There is no use arguing and quarreling among yourselves; examine, experience; then you will know the truth. Do not proclaim before you are convinced; be silent while you are still undecided or engaged in evaluating. Of course, you must discard all evil in you before you can attempt to evaluate the mystery. And, when faith dawns, fence it around with discipline and self control, so that the tender shoot might be guarded against the goats and cattle, the motley crowd of cynics and unbelievers. When your faith grows into a big tree, those very cattle can lie down in the shade that it will spread. SSS1,Chap.5

I do not insist that a person should have faith in God. I refuse to call any person a Naasthika (an atheist). Beings exist as a result of His Will, in accordance with His Plan; so no one is beyond His Grace. Besides, every one has Love towards some one thing or other, and that Love is a spark of the Divine; every one has ultimately to base his life on some one Truth; that Truth is God. No life can be lived out in complete defiance of Truth; one has to pay heed to truth and speak the truth to some one in order to make life worth living. Now, that moment is God's moment and at that moment when he utters the truth or loves or serves or bends, he is a theist. SSS1,Chap.8

What is wanted now is uthsaaha, dhairya and vishwaasa (effort, courage and faith). In effort, you must follow a regulated routine learnt from some adept in the field. For courage, you must feel your own importance for your uplift; never call yourself a sinner born in sin, bred in sin and engaged in sin. No; that kind of self- condemnation ill becomes a child of God, an Amrithaputhra. In every one of you, God is the moving spirit, the very Soul; how then can you be evil, when you are here for fulfilling God's purpose, according to his Will, His Plan, His Law? He has endowed you with many faculties so that you may seek Him and reach Him. You are not therefore a helpless neglected individual undergoing a sentence of death. You are Aanandhaswaruupa (embodiment of Bliss), born to a rich heritage, which is yours for the asking. Only you do not ask. Have faith in your destiny and work gladly and steadily to attain it. SSS1,Chap.26

Yes, you must struggle. You cannot go to the top without an effort. Have faith in ultimate victory, gather courage and faith from wherever you can get them; do not have contact with persons who sow the seeds of fear or doubt. SSS1,Chap.27

In all effort, if you trust in a Higher Power which is ready to come to your help, work is made easy. This comes out of Bhakthi, reliance on the Lord, the source of all Power. When you travel by train, you have only to purchase the ticket, enter the proper train and take a seat, leaving the rest to the engine. Why should you carry the bed and trunk on your head? So too, put your trust in the Lord and carry on to the best of your ability. Have faith in the Lord and His Grace. Try to earn it by using the intelligence and the conscience with which He has endowed you. SSS1,Chap.28

If you take Krishna to be a Gopaala (cowherd), a man of the world like others, then for you he will be just a cowherd! You too climb only up to that stage. You have to take it in the yogic sense that "Go" in Gopaala means "jeevi" (living being) and therefore, Gopaala means "He who protects, guides, feeds and fosters the jeevis"; that is to say, "He who is the protector and preserver of beings". You will have noticed that Uddhava, who looked upon Krishna as his Guru, benefitted more than Arjuna who looked upon Him as a sakha (a friend). If you have faith that He is God, He will be God to you; if you dismiss Him as mere man, He takes on that role and becomes useless for you. Search for Him with the heart, not with the eye for externals. SSS1,Chap.30

I have come to set the world right and so I have to collect all those who are ill and treat them in My 'Hospital' and restore them to sanity, strength and wisdom and send them back to their stations in life. I must intensify your bhakthi, reinforce your faith and rebuild the foundations of your moral nature, so that you can counter temptations with greater confidence. I have come across people who recite a prayer and believe that they are bringing the world nearer to Peace with every occasion on which they pray. But peace can be won only the hard way, by eliminating violence and greed from the hearts of individuals. SSS1,Chap.30

Once a person came to Me and argued that there was no God and he was not prepared to believe in one. Well. I asked him, “Have you faith at least in yourself? Which is your self? Your self is God. You have faith in your judgement, your intelligence, your ability, because God within you tells you not to falter or fear. That assurance wells from within, from your basic truth, which is otherwise called God. It does not matter if you do not call it God; it is enough if you believe in Yourself; that is the real test of theism, I told him. SSS2,Chap.3

Many of you have come with problems of health or mental worry of some sort or other. They are mere baits by which you have been brought here, so that you may contact the Grace, and strengthen your faith in the Divine. Problems and worry are really to be welcomed as they teach you the lessons of humility and reverence. But, not all continue the attachment they are able to establish; they lose the fortune that has fallen into their hands. You will see the day when the Chithravathi sands alone can accommodate the gatherings that assemble here from all parts of the world; when the sky alone can provide a roof for them all. SSS4,Chap 11

"God's ways may not be easy to comprehend. But whatever God does is only out of His boundless love to help the devotees. Some do not understand this and attribute partiality to God. This is due to ignorance. True devotees should not give room to such doubts and undermine their faith in God. They should always try to strive to seek the One Divine in the many." SSS27,Chap.8

"Only cowards yield to their senses or passions. Brave men face up to them and win. The hero is he who overrules his mind and curbs his impulses; the zero is he who is overruled by them. Stand fast, like a rock, when the waves beat. Have faith in your ideals, in God. Do not allow faith to falter when failure comes into your door. Meet it as a new challenge, and triumph....If faith is one full continuous stream, Grace too will be showered on you in one full continuous stream." SSS12,Chap.9

"Never stray from the path of right, whatever the trouble or temptation. Do not loosen the grip, do not turn back. Do not allow faith to be upset. If you attach importance to riches or children or fame or fortune, you are thereby announcing that you are devoted, not to God, but to riches, children, and the rest. If you are devoted to God, how should you manifest that devotion? Let me tell you how. By manifesting divine qualities, divine virtues, divine love, divine strength. Become Sai, Be Sai." SSS11,Chap.6

"Accept everything good that comes your way. Ignore all that is bad. People may praise or criticise, but none can shake Sai. Sai lives in truth. None has been able to shake truth at any point of time. Lead your lives with such strong conviction. Increase your faith in God day by day. As faith increases, all the wickedness will perish. Do not give up the spiritual practices that you have been doing all along. Since Jesus bore all the difficulties with fortitude, he is being adored and worshipped to this day." Christmas Discourse 2000

"I will not accept it if you say that you are an atheist with no faith in the Lord. For what is the root of that faith in yourself? Who are you that you should believe in yourself? No. You believe yourself because your Self is God and you have an unshakable faith in God, deep down in you. Faith in yourself and faith in God are identical; you tap the strength of the God within when you stand at attention against an enemy without." SSS2,Chap.46

Grow in faith; that will make you an iron ball that cannot be lifted by any gust of wind. So too, be so firmly fixed in faith that a gust of grief or a puff of pain cannot agitate you and make you lose hold of God. There are some who worship my picture with great gusto, but, if the buffalo which was yielding two seers of milk per day starts giving one, they attribute it to the picture and the puuja, and they turn the picture to the wall and rue the day when they brought it home! Some who have been coming to me since fifteen or ten years have not yet invested deep devotion in their hearts, and so, are liable to fits of disbelief! How can you get Me on the film, if you turn the lens towards the world and click? Focus the heart correctly and click the switch of intelligence, that is the way of getting a clear picture of mine imprinted in your heart. SSS10,Chap.14

Get over fear, by establishing your mind in the One, for, fear can arise only when there is another. An inquirer from the United States asked me recently, 'How can faith become firm?'. I answered, 'When the Truth is known, faith is rendered firm.’ When the Truth is known that it is a rope, faith in its harmlessness is made firm, and fear that it is a snake disappears. SSS11, Chap.16

You must have heard of a Raamabhaktha (devotee of Rama) who sat on the roadside by his upturned cart, wailing his bad luck and calling on Raama to lift the cart into position. Raama did not appear to raise the cart and fix the wheel. He therefore began chiding his faith itself and to doubt the experience of the sages who describe Him as the Ocean of Mercy. Raama came into his presence then; but only to tell him, "You fool, I have entrusted you with some intelligence and strength. Use them. Put your shoulder to the task now before you. When you have done your best and that best is found not enough, then call on Me; I am ever ready to reinforce your exertions with My Grace." SSS2, Chap.27

You must dive deep into the sea to get the pearls. What good is it to dabble among the waves near the shore and swear that the sea has no pearls in it and that all tales of their existence are false. So also if you must realise the full fruit of this Avathaar, dive deep and get immersed in Sai Baba. Half-heartedness, hesitation, doubt, cynicism, listening to tales, all are of no avail. Concentrated complete faith - that alone can bring victory. This is true of any worldly activity, is it not? How much more true must it be, therefore in the spiritual field? But if you have already attached yourselves to some one Name and Form, do not change it, do not choose another in place of the prema swarupam…Have your mind fixed on One; do not now and then allow clouds of doubt, like "'Is He Great?" "Is He God?" to dim your faith. Be bold. Acknowledge the glory that you have witnessed; proclaim the joy that you have experienced; confess to the Grace that you have earned. SSSI,Chap.21

When you believe in God, you develop faith in the divinity of all things. Faith is the basis of worship. Worship leads to oneness with the Divine. The sense of separateness will persist as long as there is not God realisation. Separateness ends with Realisation…When you have faith in yourself, you will have faith in God. Realise that there is nothing beyond the power of God. Love God with that supreme faith. Then you will be drawn towards God. It needs purity. A magnet cannot attract a piece of iron covered with rust. Similarly God will not draw to Himself an impure person. Hence, change your feelings and thoughts and develop the conviction that God is everything. God will not give you up when you have this conviction. SSS28, Chap.4