‘Within You Is The Real Happiness’ Decades ago He wrote a letter meant for devotees en masse, educating humans of their True Truth, exhorting them to shun what is not real, to gain the infinite universal individuality. Here comes the Message from Bhagawan titled ‘Message’. You as body, mind or soul are a dream, but what you really are is Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. You are the God of this universe. You are creating the whole universe and drawing it in. To gain the infinite universal individuality, the miserable little prison individuality must go. Bhakti is no crying or any negative condition, it is seeing of all in all we see. It is the heart that reaches the goal; follow the heart. A pure heart seeks beyond the intellect; it gets inspired. Whatever we do reacts upon us. If we do good, we shall have happiness and if evil, unhappiness. Within you is the real happiness; within you is the mighty ocean of nectar Divine. Seek it within you, feel it, feel it; it is here, the Self. It is not the body, the mind, the intellect, the brain; It is not the desire or the desiring; it is not the object of desire. Above all these, you are. All these are simply manifestations. You appear as the smiling flower, as the twinkling stars. What is there in the world which can make you desire anything?

Man should aim at being Siva, not Yama …A priceless piece of advice from Bhagawan on adhering to the righteous path to become a Truthful, Rightful human being, putting the very best effort to know what is ‘Unknown’, The True Truth. Time is fleeting like a fast moving wind. The body is melting away from moment to moment like a block of ice. And, Man is discarding his mortal body without performing his duty. If human life does no more than, being born, brought up and die, then what is its achievement? What is the fruit of all the effort? Is this the use to which the education and training that man acquires are put? Why should one make a special effort to acquire such qualities if it is only to know what is already known. One should use one’s intelligence to know what we do not know. The beasts and the birds too eat and sleep; they express fear and love in the same manner as men do. The differences are only in appearance and in name; the desire and the passion are the same for man and beast. How can we then establish the uniqueness of man? In spite of the fact that wisdom and judgement are special gifts to man by God, if man does not draw upon such gifts of what use is it to proclaim the sanctity of the human species? What is the use of claiming supremacy? There is no sense in such pride. To relate one’s actions with one’s utterances and to relate one’s utterances with one’s thoughts is to be human. If on the other hand, there is no correspondence between one’s utterances, one’s actions and one’s thoughts, the individual can be only a min in outer shade; truly, he is devoid of all title to life. Your hearts should be filled with compassion towards all living beings. You should fill suffering hearts with Prema. You should radiate thoughts that can generate Ananda. The heart is like the overhead tank. Actions are like taps. Whatever quality of water is used to fill the tanks, only such will flow out of the taps. Fill the heart with Prema; then, Ananda flows from the taps. It will reach the world around us. The utterance of Tukaram, “Dil ka Ram; Hath ka Kam” should be regarded as the motto of life. Prema is the main pillar of the Sai teaching. Life should be filled with Prema. The world should be looked at with Prema. Society should be contacted with Prema. Fulfilment of one’s life should trough Prema. Prema alone is God. Prema alone is Life. There is no living without Prema. Life devoid of Prema is equivalent to death. Life filled with Prema is Ananda. Life without Prema is sorrow, Prema is festivity. Absence of Prema is mourning. Prema is fearlessness. Absence of Prema is fear. Prema is the messenger of good. Absence of Prema is the harbinger of death. Man should aim at being Siva and not behave like Yama. Man should become himself fearless; he should not frighten all around him. To strike terror is the nature of the hunter beast! To be afraid is the nature of the hunted animal. Man is neither a hunter beast nor a hunted animal. He should neither cause terror nor lie afraid. He should saturate Life with Prema.

A Gift Must Be Made Without Pride Or Publicity Remove the extra ‘O’ that is mere zero, from ‘good’ and you are GOD says Bhagawan discoursing on the most enchanting ‘spirituo-egotistic’ dual between Lord Vamana and Emperor MahaBali. (Onam Divine discourse on 15th August 1970) You cannot achieve the goal through good works alone. In Good, there is an extra O, something that is mere zero. That is to say, the desire which prompts you, the fruit which entices you, the reputation that tantalises you – these are all sheer zero, a big O. Leave it off; then, we have ‘Good’ with a zero less, with no self-intruding, that is to say, we have GOD. Desire plus Life is Man!  Life minus desire is God.  Bali got blessed through Thyaga (Renunciation, Detachment)! He became monarch of the nether regions and God agreed to be his gate-keeper, guardian and guide! What a blessing! He had the ambition to become Indra, the God of gods, the Ruler of Heaven.  It is said that anyone who performs a hundred Yagas in a row, with ceremonial rectitude, will automatically become Indra. The Indra who is installed thus once is ever reluctant to yield his chair to another 100-yaga person! So he tries his “worst” to disturb and desecrate the last few of the hundred, so that no one can complete a century! Bali too was within 36 minutes of completing the hundredth; the crisis of enthroning a Rakshasa (demonic being) as God of gods had to be averted. And, Vamana arrived on the scene, asking for alms – just three feet of ground! O, what a Foot He grew, in a trice! Indra was saved from becoming an ex-Indra! The 100th Yaga was abandoned, due to the calamity that happened to the Monarch, his displacement and his transmutation into a humble servant of God. Dhana (the act of gifting) is a meritorious act, if it is rendered to the needy, at the time of need, in a manner that fulfills the need; it must be made without pride or publicity; without the superior air of the giver, without rubbing into the mind of the receiver that he is being helped to stand on his own legs, with no contempt contaminating the mind of the giver. Give, as an act of worship to the Divine that you wish to adore in the person to whom you are offering what God has given you for this very purpose! One person in heaven asked an angel how it was that he could get into Heaven, and sit on the very throne of Indra! When told that his gifts on earth had entitled him to it, he gifted Heaven itself to that angel; so, he rose up to even higher status, it is said!

Cheppinattu Chestara??? Decades ago, as young Sathya, Bhagawan staged a drama of value-oriented message titled ‘Cheppinattu Chestara’, asking the ‘worldly’ around, as to whether they follow their words with appropriate deeds, practising Trikarana Suddhi, unity in thought, word and deed. Time and again during His sojourn on earth Bhagawan would send timely reminders for the man to follow suit. Every human being has a heart. This heart is filled with love. With how many are you sharing the love in your hearts? …With none at all. What, then, is the use of that love if it is not shared? You must share with all the love in your hearts, not with humans alone, but with all beings in creation. Love, which is the gift of God, has to be shared with everyone in the world. All human troubles arise out of the failure to share this love with one and all because of selfishness. Everyone repeats the benediction: “Lokaas-Samasthaas-Sukhino Bhavanthu!” (Let all the people of the world be happy). To how many are you giving happiness? You are repeating the words mechanically, but are you praying from your hearts for the well-being of the world? …No, not at all. You are concerned only with your selfish interests. The day you root out selfishness from within you, Divinity will blossom in your heart. People talk about Sakshatkaram. What is it? It is not something external. Sakshatkaram is contemplation of the Divine at all times and in all states within one’s self. “Sarvadhaa Sarvakaleshu Sarvathra Hari Chinthanam” (Thinking of God at all times, in all places continuously). People do recite the Name of Rama incessantly. But will liberation be got by this repetition? To gain liberation, to win Rama’s grace, it is not enough to repeat His Name; you have to act up to Rama’s principles. Rama sacrifised everything for the sake of Dharma. You have to make a similar sacrifice. Keep Dharma as your ideal. Engage yourself in righteous activities. Only then will Rama shower His grace upon you. If, on the contrary, you perform no Dharmik acts but only repeat Rama’s Name, it is tantamount to abusing Rama. Likewise, there is no meaning in repeating Krishna’s Name. What the devotee should do is to experience the ecstasy of Krishna Consciousness. …Nor is that all. You should develop the equal-mindedness of Krishna. Krishna maintained the same serenity of mind whether He was in a Yoga- Bhumi, or a Yuddha-Bhumi (battlefield) or Smashana-Bhumi (a cemetery). He was always in a state of bliss. You should aspire to experience such bliss; only then can you be said to experience Krishna Consciousness. Whatever deity you may worship, you should experience the lessons of the deity within you.

3 Tales Of Unsurpassed Loyalty and Devotion After the initiation into the rephrased Cosmic MahaMantra, Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu, Prasanthi Nilayam reverberated for a brief period with the Mantra Samastha Jeevah Sukhino Bhavantu, tenderly touching each being individually, thus covering the entire Srushti, Creation. Is not our Beloved Master Supreme all-encompassing, that He represents The Oneness of entire creation. Bhagawan during His sojourn on Earth did love all creatures, explicitly demonstrating for the world around the supreme significance of the Cosmic MahaMantra, Samastha Jeevah Sukhino Bhavantu! An article by avid animal lover, Late Ms Mercini Sheratt from the United Kingdom, penned a few years ago.  “Learn lessons from every living being, everything that you find around you.  Learn faithfulness and gratitude from the dog, patience and fortitude from the donkey, perseverance from the spider, farsightedness from the ant, and monogamy from the owl.”  – Sri Sathya Sai Since the beginning of man’s friendship with dogs, there must have been simply millions of tales of doggy devotion.  Anyone who has loved and cared for a dog will know how much love and adoration a dog can have for his human owner. They live for their human companions and many dogs will even die to protect those they love.  The following stories, although only the tip of the iceberg, demonstrate the depth of this love. In Edinburgh in Scotland, there is a statue of a dog called Greyfriars Bobby. The people of Edinburgh made a statue for Bobby after he died because he was so faithful to his master and lived on his master’s grave for fourteen years after his master’s death until he, too, died. What happened was this: Bobby was a lonely stray dog and because he had nothing to eat, he had to try and find food every day.  Most of the time, people treated him cruelly. One day, an old shepherd befriended him and from that day on, he fed little Bobby. They became best friends and were always together. Finally, his master died and Bobby was heartbroken. For the next fourteen years, he stayed by his master’s grave both day and night, in all weathers, whether it was boiling or freezing, only leaving once a day to beg for some food. Nothing and no one could make Bobby leave his master’s graveside. Even the gravediggers who kicked him and threw stones at him when they dug the grave could not make him stay away. Sometimes children came to play with him but after playing for a little while, he always went back to his master’s last resting place. The local people were so moved by his love, loyalty and devotion that they built a small shelter for him next to the grave. Also, because he touched the hearts of so many people, when he died in 1872, they built a statue for him in Edinburgh with a large drinking fountain for dogs! Today, you can still see Bobby’s collar and dinner bowl in Huntley’s Museum in Edinburgh. How many human beings would be so very loyal?  The following story adapted from ‘Peaceful Kingdom: Random Acts of Kindness by Animals’ by Stephanie Laland shows how a dog will literally risk its own life to protect the ones it loves. On August 29th, 79 AD, an enormous volcano erupted in Pompeii. It happened so suddenly that no one had any warning. Most people died in the eruption and their bodies were not found until almost nineteen centuries later. At that time, archaeologists discovered about 2000 skeletons. One body told a very moving story. It was the body of a dog which was stretched out protectively over the body of a small child. The faithful dog was trying to protect the child from harm even until its own last breath. The archaeologists were even more moved and amazed when they read the inscription on the dog’s collar. The inscription on the collar stated how the dog had saved the child’s father, Severinus, three times, once from drowning, once from thieves and once from a wolf.  Finally, its dying gift was to try and save the child it loved. “For He makes us aware that the God we adore, the God we love, the God we live by, is in every other being as LOVE. Thus Love expands and encompasses all creation.” – Sri Sathya Sai I knew a little dog well once that, because of sad circumstances, had to be given away to another person. Luckily that person and the little dog fell in love with each other at first sight and the little dog had a happy home. In spite of being tiny, she soon became the ruler of the roost, and the roost included some very big dogs indeed… but they knew who was boss… tiny Dolly. Despite being very happy and loved with her new mistress, she still showed the most enormous loyalty to her previous owner. Whenever he came to visit her… when it was time to go, she would leap onto his shoulder as she always had done, as if to say: “Well, come on, let’s go… I’m coming back home with you” but it could never be. That is not all. For several years, at the end of the afternoon, Dolly would go down to the bottom of the drive and wait and wait and wait… it was the time that her previous owner used to come back home from work. After long and patient waiting, when he did not appear, she would finally give up and go back inside with a loud, sad sigh. No matter how disappointed she must have felt, she kept up her patient vigil for a long time.

Practising ‘Samastha Lokah…’ in Essence When the concept of ‘Samastha Lokah…’ seeps into your subconscious mind,  reflection outside starts fading in, hooking you into the Source n’ Force within, thus the essence of practising Bhagawan’s MahaMantra of Oneness, Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu.

The Way Forward In Sai… Infinitely blessed with a priceless life sojourn, knowing the Truth of  Sri Sathya Sai being The Supreme Incarnate, how do we go about leading our lives?  Lucas Ralli’s book  ‘Sai Messages For You & Me’ serves a guiding pointer here, for you and me. There are two ways to live your life. One is the usual way, a life related entirely to the material plane and everything within it. Such a life leads you along an endless oath and can never bring true satisfaction or happiness. Whatever you may gain on the way, money, possessions, position, power, prestige, will be of no lasting value, for all such things have no meaning, relevance or value when the journey comes to an end. The other way is to live your life with an unshakeable awareness of the presence of God, and of your own reality. The two ways are like two sides of a coin. However, instead of tossing the coin at random, you are free to make your own choice. There is only one way forward in Sai, the way to God. Sai is not a movement; Sai is God. Do not try to become teachers because “God” cannot be taught. The way ahead is through living a life which is a perfect example of God manifesting HimSelf in human form. You yourselves must strive to become living examples and then other people will begin to take notice and start following the same path. Sai does not advertise, except through the examples of His own children who have surrendered to Him and become beacons of love and light in this troubled world. That is the choice which faces all of you. It is the ultimate challenge, to give up attachment to the material and turn to the spiritual. When that time comes, the desires and attachments will slowly fall away as you begin to follow the teachings of Sai and put them into practice in your daily lives. That is the way to help humanity. What are you trying to achieve? Union with God. Union exists now for all of you, for there is nothing in the world other than God. But that union is masked by materialism and concealed by the body with all its endless desires. The bodily desires must be neutralised so that they become the servants, not the master. Learn to cleanse the body so that it can serve the purpose for which it was created, a vehicle for the spirit, for Divinity, a vehicle which can carry you forward to the very threshold when you merge with God. Then the body can be put to rest for ever more.

The Golden Age The arrival of the Golden Age is an infinitely fascinating idea, a Golden Hope beyond all perceivable dimensions, for, man is obviously tired and almost out suffering from the bedevilled tactics of the on-going Kali Age. In such a scenario, circumstance, what else other than the Divine Promise of the Lord Supreme Incarnate can soothe our agitating minds?!? Bhagawan said then, “Man is living at the dawn of a Golden Age, and he himself will determine the timing of the transition by his own acts and thoughts.’ Read on… When the Golden Age dawns there will be harmony throughout the world and love will flow everywhere. All thoughts of hatred will disappear. Today you cannot visualise such a state because there is chaos everywhere, fighting, scheming, hatred, evil; all the negative emotions are in the ascendant. But eventually the change will come. The arrival of Golden Age will be heralded by a new coming, as well as some upheavels, sufficient to uproot the evil that is so prevalent today. Although the Golden Age lies in the future, man can prepare himself by turning to God and living his life in complete harmony with the Infinite. That is possible now, if you surrender your will to God and dedicate your life to Him. You will become His instrument and, in that capacity, you will find fulfilment through service to humanity. Life is change, and change is taking place all the time. Only God never changes as God is the foundation of the universe and He holds everything in His hand. When you become perfectly attuned to God, you become part of the Divine foundation; then nothing can affect you. At that point, the past, present and future merge into one, and that oneness is the omnipresent God. The Golden Age is the creation of man, not of God. God created man in His own image. Within man is the Divine power locked away in his heart. But man, in his ignorance, has chosen to look elsewhere and has allowed his senses and his ego to take control of him instead of the Divine power which is there all the time. The transition from that unhappy state to the state of bliss cannot be achieved overnight, but the changes have begun and the seeds are sown. Man is living at the dawn of a Golden Age and he himself will determine the timing of the transition by his own acts and thoughts. Today the seeds are still in the ground, slowly germinating, as the teachings of the Lord begin to spread throughout the world and infiltrate the mind of man. Soon those seeds will begin to grow, and what emerges will brighten the world as the beauty of the Absolute Truth begins to reach so many people. It is a process which takes time and the new Golden Age will evolve gradually. So you should live in hope, live in love, live in purity, purity of heart and thought and, above all, be true to your own Self. Let the Divinity within shine forth and become one of the great beacons to light up the world and hasten the arrival of the new Golden Age. It is there for some, those entertained souls who have already reached the state of God realisation. It is the awakened state which will lead to the new age.

‘Mine’ is death; ‘not mine’ is Immortality As far you are attached, so far you have to traverse until you negate it practically. If life on this planet is to attain the Highest Goal, the Highest Goal is nothing but negating one’s own ‘individual’ existence. Such heroism is extolled, not by the mean worldly, but by The Supreme One HimSelf! Yes, Sri Sathya Sai – The Supreme did speak on such heroes, not once, but time and again in sacrosanct Prasanthi Nilayam. Bharat has gained wide renown through many sons and daughters who have sacrificed their all for the common good. The seed has to renounce its identity and become one with the soil so that the tree might emerge. So too, the ego has to sacrifice itself so that man’s Divine nature can manifest itself.  Mama ithi mrithyu – ‘mine’ is death; ‘not mine’ is immortality. Thyagah shanthih anantaram – Renunciation results in peace. The golden key of non-attachment opens the lock which keeps the door to heaven shut. “Give up; I shall fill the gap,” says Jesus. Today, renunciation has become a means for success and fame!  It has become a bargaining point.  Renouncing animal and even human feelings and earning the awareness of the Divine which is the core, is the most valuable sadhana. Consider the heroes of renunciation in the past; they  were  mostly  rulers  and  the  rich,  who  could  afford  power  and  plenty – Emperor  Sibi, Emperor  Mahabali,  King  Karna. Consider also later heroes – Tanhaji and Bhagat Singh. These two sacrificed their lives for the sake of the nation and the world. Mahabali, the asura (demon) ruler, renounced everything for the sake of God. His father and grandfather were also very famous for the same reason. The great grand-father, Hiranyakashipu, did not tolerate the very mention of the name Hari. For he swore that he was himself God! He was a fanatical rationalist. And, he had a son named Prahlada who was devoted to Hari and whose dedication and surrender to God was complete, without any reservation. He came out triumphantly through travails and tortures. The name Hari, was the armour that saved him from the shafts of angry hatred aimed by his father. The persons who tortured him in obedience to his father’s  command  were  struck  at  the  calm  heroism  and  the  utmost  peace  he  enjoyed  as  a consequence of his steady repetition of the Lord’s Name.