Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

Know that waking from sleep is but birth, and going into sleep is death. On waking, pray every morning of your life, “Oh Lord, I am born now from the womb of sleep. I am determined to carry out all tasks this day as offerings to Thee, with Thee ever present before my mind’s eye. Make my words, thoughts, and deeds sacred and pure. Let me not inflict pain on anyone; let no one inflict pain on me. Direct me, guide me, this day.” And when you enter the portals of sleep at night, pray, “Oh Lord! The tasks of this day, whose burden I placed on you this morning, are over. It was You who made me walk and talk and think and act. I, therefore, place at Thy feet all my words, thoughts, and deeds. My task is done. Receive me, I am coming back to you.” Adopt these as your daily prayers.

Everyone must develop the spirit of sacrifice (thyaga). You must serve the people with your body. You must cherish good and noble thoughts in your mind. You must use your wealth for supporting educational and other institutions to help the people. Give food to the starving. This is the way to lead a purposeful and sublime life.

Take refuge in God. Let God be your guru, your path, your Lord. Adore God, obey God’s commands, offer God your grateful homage, and hold God fast in your memory. This is the easiest way to realize God as your own reality. This is the one and only way.

When one realizes the inefficiency of the senses, mind, and intellect to cope with the reality and know the inner core of God’s truth, then one realizes that there is God who is the basis of all this superstructure, who has designed and contrived all this. One then surrenders the ego to God. "Let Your will prevail," one proclaims and resigns fully to God’s plan. That moment is a supreme moment of joy and bliss.

You have to recognize these three. First is that which once comes, then never goes. The second, once goes, then never comes back. The third, neither comes nor goes. The first is wisdom (jnana), the second is ignorance (ajnana) and the third is the principle of the Atma. Atma is steady and eternal, it never changes.

The best thing is to have your own Self as the source of light, as the guru. The inner intelligence, the inner guru will reveal the truth. This prayerful attitude will so educate your impulses that your Inner Intelligence will be fully revealed.

The waves appearing in an ocean appear as different from each other. But they consist of the same water. Likewise, though humanity appears in innumerable forms, all these are like the waves appearing on the ocean of being-awareness-bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda). Names and forms may be different, but the basis is the same.

Try to be near God, as close as God’s own kin, do not calculate the number of hours you have spent in serving God, and pine that God has not compensated you. Be ever in God’s service, that is to say, in doing good and being good.

You see many things in dreams, and many things are acquired by you during dreams: power, pelf, status, and reputation. But when you awake, you do not weep over the loss, even though for the duration of the dream all that was very real and gave you real satisfaction and joy. That was a “dream”, you tell yourself; what prevents you from treating with similar nonchalance the possessions gathered during the waking stage of your life? Cultivate that attitude, and you can depart with a smile whenever the curtain falls on this dreamland stage.

Let your vision be suffused with love. Vision filled with love is the hallmark of a true human being. All are one, be alike to everyone. You can understand unity in diversity only when you develop sacred vision. Samyak drishti (correct vision – seeing things as they really are) makes you realize the presence of divinity in all.

Everyone must make their exit someday. That moment should not be a moment of anguish; one should depart gracefully, with a smile and a bow. To do that, a lot of preparation is necessary. To depart, leaving all that has been accumulated during a long lifetime, is a hard task; so, prepare for it by discarding attachment to one thing after another from now on.

While proceeding along the road, you can watch your shadow falling on mud or dirt, hollow or mound, thorn, or sand, wet or dry patches of land. You are unaffected by the fate of your shadow, is it not? Nor is the shadow made dirty thereby. It does not worry in the least where it falls or what it wades through. We know that the shadow and its experiences are not eternal or true. Similarly, you must get convinced that “you” are but the shadow of the Absolute; you are essentially not this “you” but the absolute itself. That is the remedy for sorrow, misery, and pain.

One whose heart is filled with love will see the manifestation of divinity everywhere. It is a mistake to think that nature is different from God. People give various names to divinity based on their own experience. Jewels are many, but gold is one. Likewise, names and forms are different, but divinity is one.

Wherever you may be and whatever you do, regard yourselves as instruments of the divine and act on that basis. You need not wait for a whole year to observe Guru Poornima. Treat every moment of your life as being intended for dedication to the Lord. This is the way to experience the divine all the time in all places. This is true sakshatkara (vision of the divine).