Fill Your Heart with Compassion Some people say that money is the basis of the entire world (dhana moolam idam jagat). Others say that righteousness is the basis of the entire world (dharma moolam idam jagat). But the correct statement is that compassion is the basis of the world (daya moolam idam jagat). The five basic elements—the sun, the moon, and night and day all function based on compassion (daya). The heart filled with compassion is divine. Even if others talk to us harshly, we should always speak amiably. One can find fulfillment in life only with compassion and mercy. One may be a Brahmin, a demon, or a king, one may do a lot of yoga, one may grow beard like a renunciant, one may smear one’s forehead with ash, one may keep on chanting names of God, but one avails nothing without possessing a heart full of compassion. Although compassion is a natural quality, people are not able to realize this. The entire world is based on kindness. Philosophies, religions, nations, and languages may be different, but the heart is the same. ~Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 30 (1997) Here, in the aspect of womanhood, one must observe and draw attention to a great quality that may be described as compassion. The next quality that we must note is their ability to sacrifice. The makeup of a woman is such that she will give protection despite many faults. She can also be compared to an educational institution where she will teach patiently like a good teacher, even if the recipient is not willing to learn. She may also be described as a happy home where she arranges everything without thinking of any discomfort for herself. We can also think of a woman as a person of sufficient spiritual strength by which she can make Aja, Hara, Hari or God himself play like a child before her. ~Summer Showers 1978 Every man has a heart. Every heart is filled with compassion. However, how many choose to share this compassion with others? Sharing one’s compassion with ten others has been characterized as bhakti (devotion). One who does not share his compassion with others cannot be called a human being. Today the human heart that should be full of compassion has become stone hard. This is man’s misfortune. What is the reason? It is because the heart is filled with the bitterness of differences of caste, creed, and nationality that it has become stony. All human beings belong to one caste, one community, one nation. All are embodiments of the Divine. Krishna declared in the Gita: “All beings in the world are a fragment of ‘My Self.’ It is tragic that man should forget his divine essence and behave like a demon.” ~Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 29 (1996) What can the evil effects of Kali Age do to oneWhose heart is full of compassion,Whose speech is suffused with truth, andWhose body is dedicated to the service of others? (Sanskrit Verse) You may worship God with various types of flowers,But He will not be pleased with such worship.If you offer Him the lotus of your heart,He will accept it with great love.Never forget this great truth. (Telugu Poem

Nature Is the Best Teacher If there is a boil on the body, we apply some ointment and cover it with a bandage until it heals. If you do not do this, it is likely to become septic and cause great harm later. Every now and then one has to clean it with pure water, apply the ointment again and put on a new bandage. In the same way in our life, there is this (particular) boil that has come up in our body, in the form of ‘I’, (ahamkara [ego] and mamakara). If you want to really cure this boil of ‘I’, you will have to wash it every day with the water of love, apply the ointment of faith, and tie the bandage of humility around it. This will cure the disease that has erupted with this boil of ‘I’. Divine Discourse, Feb 17, 1985 The whole world is intimately associated with the Sun God. He is the visible manifestation of the Lord. In India, Sun God (Surya) is considered highly sacred and granted the unique status of a great Guru. Sun is also the source of time. The Sun limits and regulates the number of years each one lives. He performs His duty without thought of reward and is humble and steady. Imagine the patience with which the Sun puts up with all that extreme heat, and gives sufficient warmth to the human body, every single day. Human beings are so full of activity and intelligence on account of the solar energy that is imbibed. If the Sun is idle even for a moment, the whole world will go cold and dark. The actions of the great is the ideal that the rest must keep in view. This also shows that all in the world are bound by the obligation of karma (activity). ~Geeta Vahini, Chapter 6 If you view the world with love, it will appear as filled with love. On the other hand if you view it with hatred, everything will appear antagonistic to you. Eyes filled with love shine with brightness and cheerfulness. On the contrary eyes filled with hatred appear bloodshot and fearful. Your thoughts determine your actions whether good or bad. The external world will reflect your thoughts. You must consider the entire universe as a temple of God. You must regard all that is beautiful and great in nature—the lofty mountains, the vast oceans, and the stars in the sky—as proclaiming the glory and power of the Divine. The sweet fragrance of flowers or the delectable juice of fruits should also be regarded as tokens of God’s love and compassion. ~Divine Discourse, July 24, 1983 All of you must realize that the relationship between you and God is permanent and is beyond the limitations of time and space. You should not waste your life thinking only of the physical relationship. The body is a passing thing. What you see externally is a burden; when you have made it a part of yourself it ceases to be a burden. It is like the food that a traveler carries on his shoulders for consumption on the way. As long as the food remains outside it is a burden. But when he has eaten it, he gets stronger and there is no burden on his shoulder. You must safeguard the Divinity you experienced and magnify it by contemplating on it internally. You should concentrate on the attainment of union with the Divine, which is permanent and beyond the limitations of time and space.

Food Every activity of man is dependent on the energy he derives from the intake of food. The spiritual sadhanas [spiritual practices] he ventures upon depend for their success on the quantity and quality of the food taken by the sadhaka (spiritual aspirant), even during the preliminary preparations recommended by Pathanjali [an author, mystic, and philosopher]. The most external of the five sheaths that enclose the atmic core, namely the annamaya kosha (physical sheath), has impact on all the remaining four—the pranamaya, the manomaya, the vijnanamaya, and the anandamaya (the vital, mental, wisdom, and bliss sheaths or coverings). The annamaya kosha is the sheath consisting of the material, flesh and bone, built by the food that is consumed by the individual. Food is generally looked down upon by ascetically-minded sadhakas and seekers and treated as something that does not deserve attention. But since the body and the mind are mightily interdependent, no one can afford to neglect it. As the food so the mind, as the mind so the thought, as the thought so the act. Food is an important factor that determines the alertness and sloth, the worry and calm, the brightness and dullness. The scriptures classify food as satwik, rajasik and tamasik and relate these types to the three mental modes (gunas) of the same names. Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 14 (1978 – 80) Health is wealth. Without a healthy body, man cannot execute any of his thoughts, however good they may be. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind. Several civilizations have treated various limbs and organs of the body as specialized individual entities that contribute to the body as a whole. The people of France maintained strict control on their eating habits and contents and maintained good health. The body is a temple of God. It may be temporary like a water bubble, but unless the house is safe, how can the inhabitants residing inside be safe? You can do much good with a healthy body. The youth today neglect this aspect and suffer from deteriorating health. Several scholars and intellectuals have attempted to control, if not eradicate, ill health. The Romans were front-runners in this aspect. They maintained healthy and strong bodies and kept each limb and organ of the body in as near perfect and strong condition as possible. They did this by watching the three main aspects: conduct, character, and sensitivity. They remained self-sufficient as far as bodily needs were concerned and did not like depending on their fellow men to help them move about for their daily needs…. In each limb and organ of the body resides Divinity. He is therefore called Angeerasa: the vital force in each organ of the body. Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 35 (2002) Man is the only living being who dislikes raw food found in the natural state. All other animals eat things as they are—grain, grass, leaves, shoots, fruits. Man boils, fries, melts, mixes, and adopts various methods of cooking in order to satisfy the cravings of the tongue, the eye, and the nose. As a consequence, the food value of these articles is either reduced or destroyed. When the seeds are fried, they do not sprout; that is clear proof that the ‘life-force’ is eliminated. Therefore, uncooked raw pulses just sprouting are to be preferred. Also nuts and fruits. The coconut, offered to the Gods, is a good satwik (pure) food, having good percentage of protein besides fat, starch, and minerals. Food having too much salt or pepper is rajasik (passion rousing) and should be avoided; so, also, too much fat and starch, which are tamasik (disposed to inactivity) in their effects on the body, should be avoided. An intake of too much food is also harmful. Simply because tasty food is available and is being offered, one is tempted to overeat. We have air all around us but we do not breathe in more than we need. The lake is full, but we drink only as much as the thirst craves for. But overeating has become a social evil, fashionable habit. The stomach cries out, ‘Enough,’ but the tongue insists on more, and man becomes the helpless target of disease. He suffers from corpulence, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Moderate food is the best medicine to avoid bodily life. Do not rush to the hospital for every little upset. Too much drugging is also bad. Allow nature full scope to fight the disease and set you right. Adopt more and more the principles of naturopathy and give up running around for doctors. Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 14 (1978 – 80) Even after having attained the sacred human birth, it is very unfortunate if you are not able to put your life on the right path. The gopikas were pure and sacred-minded and were used to worshipping God with a name and form. Prahlada was also pure and sacred-minded, and he was used to worshipping the formless God. Both were ideal examples for these two paths. People who want to develop themselves along the path of the atma must have good health, and for this purpose the control of food is essential. By eating clean food we can get a clean mind, and through a clean mind we can get a clear idea of the goal. Through such a clean concept of the atma, we will be able to get rid of the illusion of maya [illusion]. Through this method, the knot that is present in our heart will open, and this is the basis for getting a divine vision….

 Inquiry ‘We become what our thoughts are.’ These thoughts on the validity of the objective world and the value of the joys derivable therefrom, though they emanate from ignorance (a-jnana), do shape us from within. The reason we are caught in this mold lies in the absence of four requisites: (1) attention to spiritual progress, (2) steady faith, (3) devotion, and (4) the grace of God. Even if one of these four is absent, people cannot experience the highest bliss of the Absolute. Sri Sathya Sai Vahini Every aspirant must enter onto the path of inquiry. Only then can the conviction dawn and grow that nature and all learning connected with nature are unreal; only then will these be given a relative, not an absolute value. They are, of course, to be learned and experienced as necessary for existence, as a kind of daily routine. However, they should not be mistaken to be the highest knowledge, the unchanging eternal truth. That mistake, if committed, leads to an agitated mind (a-santhi). Agitation produces worry and anxiety, which in turn destroy peace. If you aspire to peace, equanimity, the basic thing is to have faith in the temporary nature of Nature and be engaged in the uninterrupted contemplation of the changeless Godhead. Prasanthi Vahini Our inquiry should not be directed to the obvious and the superficial. This line of inquiry will only mislead us into believing what is not the cosmos. It makes us forget that it is our mind that has generated this panorama of cosmic proportions and presented it to us as truth. It is indeed strange that this huge cosmos depends ultimately on whether ‘I cognize it as such or not! If you feel it is there, it is there; if you feel it is not there, it is not there!’ This means that we have to go deep into this process of the mind. Is there any occasion when our assertion leads to the existence of a thing and our negation results in its disappearance? Or, is this conclusion a figment of the imagination? Inquiry on these lines would undoubtedly reveal the truth. Sri Sathya Sai Vahini Well! If only everyone would ask the questions: ‘Who are we? Whence did we come? Where have we come to? How long will we be here?’, the truth could be easily grasped. That questioning is the sign of discrimination (viveka). When, by means of this discrimination, the idea that the world is impermanent gets deeply rooted in the mind, all attachments cease automatically. That is the stage of renunciation or detachment (vairagya). One asks, is it worthwhile to be caught up in this unreal world? This is false and misleading, one tells oneself. One then turns one’s efforts to the realm of the Lord, the realm of truth. That is the wise decision. It is through discrimination (viveka) and detachment or renunciation (vairagya) that one understands who one really is. Without them, it is impossible to know it. The Lord has blessed only humanity with these two. He has endowed people so that they might use them for that purpose. Hence, people are truly fortunate. But alas, people have forgotten the task for which they have come, ignored the question whence they came, closed their eyes to where they are, diverted their intelligence toward amusement and creature comfort, and wasted all their powers. What a tragedy! If in this most propitious human birth itself the Godhead is not sought, when else is a person to succeed? If today is squandered so, will tomorrow help you? If one’s real nature is first understood, the rest can all be easily grasped. One will thereafter know who one is, whence one came, where one has come to, and how long one exists. Prasanthi Vahini

Spiritual Wisdom Bhagavan has seven chief characteristics: prosperity, glory, wisdom, non-attachment, creation, preservation, and dissolution. Whoever has these seven you can consider as having Divinity in Him. These seven are the unfailing characteristics of Avatars, of the Supreme Power, which persists fully when it has apparently modified itself with deluding power. Wherever these are found, you can identify Godhead. You are also of the same nature as the atma with Supreme Power, but, like the prince who has fallen into a den of robbers and is growing up there, the atma has not recognized its true identity, that is all. Though he does not know, he is nevertheless a prince, whether he is in the palace or in a forest or in the robber’s cave. Very often, the prince will have got intimations of his real status, a craving for the bliss (ananda) that was his heritage, a call from his inner consciousness to escape and become himself. That is the hunger of the soul, the thirst for lasting joy. You are all like the man who has forgotten his name. The hunger of the mind can be appeased only by the acquisition of spiritual wisdom. But this spiritual wisdom everyone must achieve some day or the other. It can be got through devotion or karma (activity) or royal yoga. These three are only different names for the process of churning the milk to get the butter that is immanent in it. Once the butter is rolled into a ball, it can be kept separate and unimpaired in the liquid where it was all the time. Similarly, the liberated person can continue in the world free from attachment, once they have realized that they are of the same substance as the Immanent Brahman. When that Brahman is seen through delusion (maya), it appears as endowed with qualities and is referred to as Lord or Bhagavan. Seven chief characteristics of Bhagavan–Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 1 Spend your time in company of good people. Brush up your brains by the brush of discrimination. I will not ask you to give up your critical faculty. Evaluate, discriminate, experience, and analyze your experience; then, if convinced, accept. Devotion, yoga, spiritual wisdom—these are three doors to the same Hall; some come this way, some that way, but all enter the same Hall. The spiritually wise person sees everything as the divine substance, the devotee sees everything as the play of God, the karma yogi sees everything as the service of the Lord. It is all a question of aptitude and taste and the stage of development of reason and emotion. As a result of spiritual wisdom, Thirumalacharya said, delusion (maya) goes, but delusion does not “come” and delusion does not “go”. When a light is brought into this hall, you say that light has come and darkness has gone, but where has it gone? Put out the light, it is dark! The darkness does not come from where it had gone, suddenly, through the doors and fill the hall. It is there all the time. It did not go. Only the hall was lit and light prevailed. So also, when the grace of the Lord is won, spiritual wisdom will prevail, and the delusion of separateness is powerless. How can that spiritual wisdom be earned? By a slow, systematic process, eliminating all limiting factors–greed, lust, pride, envy, hate, and all the snaky brood of possessive instincts and impulses; by the educative influence of dharma, the body of rules laid down by the experience of generations for the regulation of living; by study, rumination and practice; by analysis of the experiences of the waking, dreaming, and sleeping stages; by learning to be a witness of all this passing show without getting involved in its tangles; by overcoming all trends that divide and differentiate.

Prosperity and Welfare of Nations depend on Good Leaders This is the age of science and technology. On one side astonishing progress has been made in the fields of plastics, electronics and computers. Scientists have also made wonderful discoveries in the spheres of atomic energy and space exploration. Moreover, man is sending out into space artificial satellites. Enormous energy and expenses are being devoted for investigating the mysteries of the atom. But there is no comparable concern for developing human behavior in the competition for over-reaching each other; men are immersed in selfishness and are pursuing wrong courses. Politics and economics are bedeviled by crises. Men are riven by caste and religious conflicts. The appetite for power and position has become insatiable…. Indiscipline is rampant in the student world. Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 24 (1991) The arrogant claim that they have achieved scientific progress is utterly unwarranted because this is not true science at all. Does knowledge of how to cause mass destruction merit the name of science? Cannot their scientific investigations be devoted to causes that promote human welfare and betterment? All the scientific discoveries of today were excelled by the achievements of Hiranyakasipu. The powers obtained from them are prone to be misused. Deluded by their scientific and technological progress, the nations are losing their wisdom. What is the purpose served by these discoveries? While they promote temporary pleasures, they virtually destroy the sources of inner strength. The education that we must aim at is one that will direct the children toward the right path and promote the well-being of the nation. Only when mankind realizes this need will world peace be a reality. Man needs today a mind free from attachment and hatred, speech that is untainted by falsehood, and a body that is totally free from violence. Of these, truthful speech is most essential. Unfortunately, man is not free from these taints. Hence, students should receive an education that produces purity of mind, speech and body. Of what use is man’s conquest of the external world if he cannot realize his own true nature? Scientists are only helping to satisfy man’s selfish desires. They are keen on securing accolades for themselves, but are not concerned about the welfare of society or the goals of life. How glorious will be their achievements if their discoveries are useful to the people and promote the prosperity and welfare of nations? Today every step of man is marked by unrighteousness. Every word is tainted by untruth. His thoughts are not free from evil. All his desires are rooted in selfishness. Caste and religious conflicts are rampant. Parochialism is growing. In short, humanness has reached its nadir. How then can man be called a human being when there is no harmony in thought, word, and deed? Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 26 (1993) Alexander wanted to conquer the entire world. Today, also, we find one country trying to overpower the other. People are becoming power crazy. People who have greed for power can never be good leaders. In fact, they are the persons who destroy the nation. Many ministers, prime ministers, kings, and emperors have come and gone. But everybody was concerned only about their position and power. Fie upon such leaders, who had no concern for the welfare of the nation! Such leaders are not human beings; they are demons. Leaders should have a sense of sacrifice. Only sacrifice will lead to immortality. Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 32 (1999) In a world where dharma is being insulted and denied at every turn, peace and tolerance are the roads through which one can save oneself. This is the sum and substance of what I have to tell you and what you have to cultivate. In every act have tolerance, patience, mutual help. In the family, cultivate patience and mutual respect; in the community, have dharma and justice; in the community of peoples have the ideal of peace. The body is said to be the tabernacle of God; the world is the body of God. A pinprick on the toe is immediately recognized as an injury to the self because the toe is part of the self-same body. So, too, suffering in one corner of the world is as much the concern of the Lord as suffering in any other.

Prema/Divine Love It is the power of love that is responsible for the earth to rotate without a pivot.It is the power of love that makes the stars stand across the sky without falling on the ground.It is the power of love that keeps the oceans within their limits.It is the power of love that makes the wind blow incessantly in all the worlds.That power of love is mysterious, infinite, most wonderful and one without a second;It permeates the entire cosmos.The entire creation is saturated with love. (Telugu Poem)Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 33 (2000) God is everywhere, though He may not be directly visible to the eye. God is present even in air, but you cannot see Him there. Syrup is sweet; why? Because it contains sugar. Can you see the sugar in the syrup? No. Just because you cannot see it, can you deny the fact that there is sugar in syrup? To do so would be stupid. How then do you know there is sugar in the syrup? Through experience. Just as sugar is the basis for sweetness of syrup, God is the basis for Love, which is omnipresent. God is all-pervasive, and His presence is nectarine. If your heart is full of Love, then you will unfailingly experience His nectarine presence and sweetness everywhere. Life will be ever sweet for you, and you will always be able to share that sweetness with others. The child drinks mother’s milk and finds it to be sweet. Did the mother add sugar to the milk? No, mother’s milk is sweet by nature. That is the way God made it. In the same way, God’s Love is sweet and is present everywhere. It is up to you to extract that sweetness and enjoy it just as a baby sucks milk from its mother and even as bees suck honey from flowers. Do the flowers invite the bees? No, the bees go to the flowers spontaneously. In the same manner, you, too, should seek noble souls and absorb good things from them. Summer Showers, (15 May 2000) Fill the heart with love; then the words coming out of the heart will be full of vitality and power. There is no shakthi (power) more effective than prema (love). The grammar of love makes the words enter the hearts of the listeners and moves them into acceptance, appreciation, and action. A child’s prattle has no grammar, but it wins the love of the mother. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa did not know the word ‘pension’; he said ‘pence’ once, instead of pension. Swami Vivekananda interposed with the correct word, but the Paramahamsa said that the word did not matter, it was enough if what was meant to be communicated was understood. The bhava (the idea intended to be communicated) is the real thing; the bhasha (language in which it is clothed) is of superficial interest only. I want you to imbibe the bhava; I want the poets to inculcate pure bhava, not pretty bhasha. If you understand the bhava which I am transmitting, then you can become genuine devotees and sadhakas (spiritual aspirants) and progress on the path of self-realization. Now there are bhaktas (devotees) by the million! They are increasing daily in number. And you might have noticed, Sai Babas, too, have become very large in number! Also, people claiming association with Me, claiming that I have blessed them more plentifully than others, and authorized them to go about among the bhaktasand gain importance by collecting funds or donations! Real devotees will never announce such absurd claims or listen to such claims made by others. A true devotee will be steadfast in faith, whatever the ups and downs of worldly fortune. He prays to the Lord not for padhartham (material objects or the fulfilment of worldly desires), but for Para-ar-tham (the happiness that is supra-worldly). The Pandavas were such devotees, and so Krishna declared that He dwells in the heart of every one of those five brothers as well as of their queen, Draupadi. They are five examples for mankind in this Kali yuga (Iron Age). I exhort everyone to cultivate Prema, for I am Prema, and when you manifest Prema, you are only expressing Me, the Indweller of your heart.