Thursday, January 11, 2024
Faith is the basis for all creation. Where there is faith and love, everything else will be added unto such a person. Hence, first and foremost, one must develop faith. Many people have faith, but they lack love. Faith devoid of love has no use. Love and faith must be together like mutually attractive magnetic poles.
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
A person who never swerves from their determination, even under trying circumstances, is called a dheera (a hero), and such a person wins the grace of the Lord. We should try to seek fulfillment in our day-to-day life by basing our mundane activities on spiritual values. As I have been telling you off and on, you must have your hands in society and head in the forest. Whatever the activities you are preoccupied with in society, you must be steadfast in holding on to the spiritual ideal. This alone is the true spiritual practice (sadhana) that will bestow lasting peace on you.
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
The entire creation has its origin in God. There can be no air, sun, rain, or plants without God. Knowing this truth, we still tend to forget God. On the other hand, we remember everything else. This is not correct. You should never forget God. If you forget God, it amounts to forgetting everything. For, God is the source and cause for everything.
Monday, January 8, 2024
Each second is a fresh chance given to you to train the mind, refine the intellect, purify the emotions, and strengthen the will to get confirmed in the conviction that you are the deathless Self, the infinite consciousness (Atma).
Sunday, January 7, 2024
The fruits of your actions are determined by time. All your experiences are the results of your actions, whether it is happiness or sorrow, affluence, or poverty. Hence, good and bad depend on what you do. As are your actions, so are the fruits thereof. The way you utilize your time determines the outcome.
Saturday, January 6, 2024
When you build a house, you install a door in front. What is the purpose of the door? To admit all who you welcome and to keep out all that you do not want. It has a double purpose; you do not keep the doors wide open for all and sundry to come in as and when they like. So too, select the impulses, motives, and incentives that enter your mind; keep out the demeaning, debasing, and deleterious. Admit the highest wisdom of the scriptures; the wisdom culled out of the crucible of experience.
Friday, January 5, 2024
The lotus, born in slime and mud, rises through the water and lifts its head high above the waters; it refuses to get wet, though water is the element that gives it life! Be like the lotus.
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Time is the very form of God. Birth and death are encompassed by time. Everyone, therefore, should regard time as divine and utilize it for performing sacred actions. You should not waste a single moment.
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
In every human being, love is present as an effulgence which shines in feelings. Love is life, and life is love. Even as the power to burn is natural for fire, and the power to cool is natural for water, love is a natural trait for humans.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
The year becomes new, and the day becomes holy when you sanctify it by spiritual practice (sadhana), not otherwise. Spiritual practice can grow only in a field fertilized by love. Love or prema is the “sine qua non” of bhakti (devotion to God). The love you have towards material objects, name, fame, wife, children, etc., should be sanctified by being subsumed by the more overpowering love of God. Have the love of God filling and thrilling your heart; then, you cannot hate anyone; you cannot indulge in unhealthy rivalries; you will not find fault with anyone. Life becomes soft, sweet, and smooth.
Monday, January 1, 2024
Every second is a new moment in your life. Do not wait for a whole year to celebrate the new year and make new year resolutions. Utilize every second to purify your heart and fill it with love. You will then realize that God is yours and you are with love. True devotion is the means to realize the divine. Devotion means love of God without any desire for reward. Such devotion can be developed only through good conduct.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
The various limbs and organs together form a body; various nations and communities together form the world. The sustenance given by divine grace circulates in every part of the body, helping it to function in unison. The stream of love, endowed by divine grace, has to circulate in every state and community to make the world live in peace and joy. If this truth is realized, there will arise no idea of difference.
Saturday, December 30, 2023
No spiritual practice can yield the desired result if the senses are misused. Have sacred vision. Speak good words. Hear only what is good. Entertain noble thoughts. There is no greater spiritual practice than this. This was the teaching of Buddha. The same was taught by Jesus.
Friday, December 29, 2023
There is no right conduct (dharma) or religion higher than truth (sathya). Right conduct depends on truth. Bhagavatha declares that there is no greater sin than going back on one’s own plighted word. Hence truth is supreme. Truth and right conduct are interdependent and inseparable.
Thursday, December 28, 2023
Buddha realized that names, forms, and physical relationships are transient. He said one should not get deluded by them. Yad Drishyam Thannasyam (all that is seen is bound to perish). He studied various sacred texts and had an audience with many scholars, but He was not satisfied. Ultimately, He concluded that one could attain liberation (Nirvana) only through proper use of the five senses.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
The Romans addressed Jesus as ‘persona’ meaning one of sacredness. The English word person has been derived from this. It means that there is divinity in everyone. That is why I address you as embodiments of divinity. I and you are one. There is divine spirit in everybody. The very Self is called “persona”. There is no life principle without divinity.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
True thoughts constitute the proper wealth for all. But, alas, modern people make no efforts to cultivate good thoughts. The absence of good thoughts weakens willpower. With a weak will one cannot accomplish even simple things. To achieve anything worthwhile in life one has to strengthen one’s willpower.
Monday, December 25, 2023
Let us pay attention to the sacrifice that Jesus made while free, out of His own volition. He sacrificed His happiness, prosperity, comfort, safety, and position; He braved the enmity of the powerful. He refused to yield or compromise. He renounced the 'ego', which is the toughest thing to get rid of. Honor Him for these. He willingly sacrificed the desires with which the body torments humans; this is sacrifice greater than the sacrifice of the body under duress. The celebration of His birthday has to be marked by your sacrificing at least a desire or two and conquering at least the more disastrous urges of the ego.
Sunday, December 24, 2023
On December 25th, when Jesus was born, three kings came to His birthplace. These three gave expression to three different views about the newborn babe. One of them, looking at the infant, said: "This child will be a lover of God." A second king said: "God will love this child." The third king declared: "Verily, this child is God Himself." The first one viewed the child from the physical point of view. The second saw the child from a mental perspective. The third saw from the spiritual (Atmic) point of view. The three declarations reveal how one can progress from the human to the divine level.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Jesus exemplified the spirit of service to society. The inspiration for this came from His mother Mary. From His childhood, Mary taught Him such good qualities as truth, kindness, compassion, and justice.
Friday, December 22, 2023
The fishermen wanted Jesus to fulfill their worldly desires. Peter wanted more fish. But ultimately, he realized the futility of worldly desires. He wanted to go beyond the level of body and the mind as per Jesus’ teachings. Jesus told them to give up hatred and to love all and serve all. He exhorted them to develop faith in the principle of unity.
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Great teachers belong to mankind. It is wrong to believe that Jesus belongs only to the Christians and the Christmas is a holy festival for the West only. To accept one of them as one's own and discard the rest as belonging to others, is a sign of pettiness. Christ, Rama, Krishna - they are for all individuals everywhere.
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Jesus said that one's life was useless if one did not realize one's duties toward society. Where there is unity, there is purity; where there is purity, there is divinity; where there is divinity, there is bliss. People should recognize the intimate and inseparable relationship that exists between unity, purity, and divinity.
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
The most important faculty in humans is the power of integrated awareness (Prajna-Shakti). It is from the power of integrated awareness that other powers like willpower (Ichcha-Shakti), intelligence (Medha-Shakti), the power of speech (Vak-Shakti) and the reasoning powers (Vicharana-Shakti) are derived. This integrated awareness is sustained by thoughts.
Monday, December 18, 2023
It is not possible to attain divinity without getting rid of animality. Today, individuals may behave like animals due to their selfish love. Such a person can never enjoy happiness and will always be immersed in misery. The more one loves others, the greater the joy they will experience.
Sunday, December 17, 2023
A heart without love is like a barren land. Foster love in your hearts and redeem your lives. Whatever your scholarship or wealth, they are valueless without love. Without devotion all other accomplishments are of no avail for realizing God. Individuals aspire for liberation. True liberation means freedom from desires.
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Jesus was born for a purpose (karana-janma), a master born with a purpose, with the mission of restoring love, charity, and compassion in the hearts of people. He had no attachment to the self, nor did he pay any heed to joy or sorrow, loss, or gain. He had a heart that responded to the call of anguish, and He went about the land preaching the lesson of love. His life was a libation for the upliftment of humanity.
Friday, December 15, 2023
I and you are one. God and you are one. God is not anywhere separate from you. You should develop the feeling that you yourself are God. When you say, ‘I’, it represents unity. You cannot estimate the bliss that is derived from unity. All are one.
Thursday, December 14, 2023
The body is bound to perish one day or the other. You will have to face misery if you are attached to the body. To attain immortality and experience bliss, you have to transcend name and form. So long as you have a body, you have to take care of it. But you should not be unduly attached to it or worried about it.
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Sow the seed of love in your hearts and it will grow in due course into a big tree. God is one. Do not entertain any differences of creed or caste. Carry the message of unity to every home. Embodiments of love! Regard love as your life-breath and as the sole purpose of your existence.