Their Shelter & Their Strength This is a talk given to about 60 students of the Sri Sathya Sai Arts & Science College, gathered in Bhagavan’s presence on a sandy riverbed in the Bandipur Forest, Mysore State. Ahighly valued facet of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, at least for me, is that one can love Him with all one’s heart, without fear and without restraint. Every person wants to love greatly, with an open heart, but experience has made us afraid. We may observe how natural it is for young children to love whole-heartedly. With what richness and sweetness do very young children embrace parents, brothers, sisters, and close playmates! How much joy there is for an adult when a child of three or four years tightly embraces him with the sweetest of smiles and says, “I love you, I love you.” It is the river of love rushing from the open heart of the child that makes the child so incredibly sweet and so overflowing with bliss. It is this rich treasure of love and affection that touches even the dullest adult and makes him share the child’s bliss for a moment or so. But, as each of us leaves the innocent open‑hearted years of our early childhood, something very sad and tragic happens. Worldly experience invades the shelter of early years and the heart suffers betrayal and rejection. One loves someone and love flows to that person. But, the response is indifference, or a harsh word, or outright rejection, and the resulting hurt is deep and agonizing. The child tries again and again, and here and there, he is hurt again. In time, a natural self‑protection arises and the child’s love is qualified with caution. A person learns that when he loves, he is unprotected; love destroys his self‑pro­tection, and makes him vulnerable to suffer­ing. With each year of worldly experience, additional self‑protective factors come into one’s life. Ambition, business cares, com­petition, gratification of the senses, greed, resentment, hatred, jealousy, the whole range of narrowing tendencies exert more and more influence on body, mind, heart and intelligence. The open natural heart expansion of early childhood is by now a thing of the past. Is not this complete obstruction of the flow of love, a fundamental reason why the life of an older person is often dry and joyless? In this modern society, a dry and joyless life is the general experience. Witness the frantic search for distraction and pleasure the world over. An almost universal prayer arises from adult persons caught up in to­day’s culture: “O Lord, may there be a new season of spring in my heart. May the dry river of love flow deep and strong again in my heart.” Here, to me, is one of the most wonder­ful miracles of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Bhagavan is God, His life is divine beauty and divine love. The fettered heart, turned to Bhagavan, can break free from all its bondage. Seeing Him, being sure that He will never betray, is a most wonderful feeling. With joy, the heart res­ponds to this trust. With each day, love for Bhagavan grows stronger. He is divine mother and father to His devotee. He is the present moment at every moment! He is our breath, our food, and our drink. Con­templating God so that at that moment, bliss is the experience. One may love Him without reserve, without guard, without fear, how­ever guarded one may still be with fellow human beings. Of course, one’s behavior with Him must remain strictly disciplined. The young college boys here, assembled at this quiet stretch of sandy riverbed deep in the forest, cannot, I think, realize their good luck. For them, the heart need never be­come dry. Long before the hot dry winds of the world have had an opportunity to invade their lives, these boys have claimed Bhagavan, He who is their shelter and their strength, from now, throughout the length of their days. For myself who has come to this peaceful forest from the stormy life of the western world, the good fortune of encoun­tering Bhagavan is almost incredible. Even now, some five years from that marvelous first day, it is difficult to believe that it is really true, that He sits there, and that I am here near Him! It is with the deepest sense of gratitude that I honor Him and give all homage at His lotus feet. ~Dr. J. S. HislopSource: Sanathana Sarathi, April 1973

Sadhana and Swami Isn’t it enough if we love Swami? What is the need for rules and regulations for Sathya Sai centers?” In answer to this query from an American devotee, Dr. John Hislop wrote the following reply: Your letter was forwarded from the Council Secretary to me for answer. Your question is, “Why all the rules for centers and members? This is America, a free country. Isn’t it enough if we love Swami?” This question comes up quite often, and it is not at all unreasonable. Please bear with me for a few paragraphs, and I will do my best to explain. In the context of your sadhana [spiritual effort], which is aimed at God‑realization, intense, all‑con­suming, never‑faltering love for God is surely enough. Swami has declared that the most direct way to Him is `The royal highway of love’. With Lord Sathya Sai chosen as the beloved of your heart, every­thing that you do will be to please Him, and you would face any disaster rather than go against Him. Is it not so? This great love for Lord Sathya Sai and your dedication of thought, word, and deed to Him implies willingness and an eager­ness to discern and obey every rule of be­havior that He lays down for your spirit­ual realization of Him. Your intense desire to please the beloved of your heart will by itself save you from wrong action and will guide you to right action. In this sense, what you say is correct: “Love for God is enough.” For a great devotee of God, correct action is intuitively sensed and observed. And it is this self‑same correct action that Swami has described in words as they apply to Sathya Sai Baba centers and the devotee­ members of the centers. In the guidelines for centers, Swami’s rules for correct be­havior are clearly identified. The other data in the Guidelines is background information and administrative rules from the Council Directors that can be readily changed by petition to the Council. In terms of your personal sadhana, there is only the direct one‑to‑one relation­ship between God and His devotee. But please consider the situation of a center, its members, the public, and Swami’s work and teachings. Not all members of the Sai organization are yet fully‑committed, deeply‑understanding devotees of God. Is it not of genuine advantage to the comm­unity of devotees to be able to know what Swami expects of them as devotee‑members of a Sai organization? Having chosen Swami as supreme guru, will they not be anxious to know and follow His advice? And further, what Sai organization members say and do, and what goes on at a Sathya Sai Center is not hidden from the public. Will the public not judge Swami and His teachings by what they see of His devotees and their organization? The re­sponsibility to Swami is great and should be scrupulously protected and cared for. For this to be the case, all devotees must be able to know and study the rules that Swami deems essential for Sai devotees and Sai organizations. I hope that rules seem a little more reasonable than at first.                                     ~Dr. John Hislop

Climbing the Highest Mountain The following is an excerpt from the address given by Dr. Thorbjoern Meyer, Chairman, Coordinating Committee Europe Group One, on Gurupoornima day at Copenhagen. SAI‑ideals, when assimilated by the indi­vidual devotee, give a new confidence in the real Self, and gradually one dares to be, just to be—openly and wholly—what one really is. To realize that to be is to experience one’s own Divinity and the Divinity of the whole creation. This is sathya, truth, the first of the basic SAI‑ideals. When we express this (inner) truth in our actions, it is dharma, because to express the immanent Divinity in actions is: to see good, to hear good, and to do good. It is a philosophy of life complete­ly transforming man. It requires total unity of thought, word, and deed. Dharma is and has always been the same “Sana­thana Dharma”. The way it is act­ually expressed in daily life might vary with time, place, and circumstances like age, culture, sex, and life stage. But basi­cally it remains the same throughout the ages: to express the immanent Divinity, the one and only truth, in action. He has told us how our intelligence should be used to discriminate, as a God­-given faculty standing next to atma. This discrimination is helped by the ahimsa [non-violence] principle: never to harm anyone, anybody or anything by what we think, say or do. When we are able to identify ourselves with the entire creation (and experience all as manifestations of the One and only), ahimsa comes about quite naturally. Finally we radiate and express prema, unselfish Divine Love, because truth, love, and light are Divine principles gene­rating compassion and understanding. Then we have reached our goal of har­mony and happiness, because now we feel shanti, inner peace, total equanimity, regardless of ups and downs in the transi­tory, outside world. This unshakable stability within is what enables us to think God, to breathe God, to talk, and act God, finally unite with Him and be God, and stay in that incommunicable bliss when the last hour arrives. Though highly imperfect and only a beginner on the spiritual path of glory, I can paint this image for you and know it is truthful, because of the incomparable wisdom of Bhagavan Baba’s Divine teach­ings, and because of His compassionate grace where He allows human beings like you and me to involve ourselves in His work even while we are ourselves in the process of reformation. In the midst of a world governed by an ever‑increasing material greed, some of us have become seekers. We found out that something was utterly wrong. Selfishness is closely followed by its twin brothers greed and envy, and on this level of ego, distrust, hatred, and violence are increas­ing all over the world. When we started to experience this as a glaring dissonance, we were motivated to seek harmony in our lives. I believe this quest for harmony and happiness is as old as mankind. There is a thought-provoking old legend about the downfall of man, when God decided to take away from man the divine spark within. The lesser gods and the archan­gels suggested to bury it deep down in the ground, but God said that man would search everywhere and find it. Then the lesser gods suggested to bury it at the bottom of the sea, but this also God refused, as man would eventually find it even there. As a last resort, the lesser gods suggested to hide it at the top of the world’s highest mountain, where man couldn’t even breathe, but God resolved that at some stage man’s search would also bring him there. Then the lesser gods and the archangels gave up, but God said, “No, let us hide it within the heart of man. That is the last place he will look.” Now materialism and modern science have been ever pointing at the outside world as the source of happiness. But as this “happiness” more and more clearly remained an interval between two sorrows, earnest people all over the world are to­day turning to the way of the spirit as the answer to the crisis that faces humanity. All along He has been the director of the play. But now that so many conscio­usly take the first step toward Him, He takes a hundred toward us. He has even taken a human body and is here ready to show us the way. Once in ancient Greece a disciple of the famous philosopher Socrates asked, “How am I to go to get to Mount Olympus?” (the mountain of the Gods) and Socrates answered, “Make sure that each step you take leads you in that direction.” Through many lives mankind has strug­gled to find happiness and harmony, and now at the peak of this Kali‑age, with all its resistance, an increasing number of people are turning their awareness toward the inner truth. A spiritual hunger is growing all over the world. We have, so to speak, reached the foot of “Mount Olympus”. Now we have to choose our path uphill. At this stage, the Lord Himself is there as our guide saying, “Follow the master, face the devil, fight to the end, and finish the game.” So it seems that in struggling uphill of this, the Lord’s mountain, which is higher than the world’s highest mountain, the devil will try to stop us. Who is this devil we are to fight in order to proceed? And where is he? Sathya Sai points out that he is staying with us and is our selfishness, our small ego, our own polluted mind, our own attachments, and ignorance. But such a fight is not going to be easy! It will really be like fighting kith and kin. We have grown accustomed to our world­ly attachments, we like them and do not feel as separate entities. Not at all! Must we really fight our own self? Like Arjuna, we are hesitating. But like Arjuna, we have “Sanathana Sarathi” (the ever-existing charioteer), now in the form of

I Am God, I Am God, I Am No Different from God Berniece Mead, National Sai Spiritual Education Coordinator at the time, gave the following talk on the weekend of September 26-27, 1998, at the San Diego Sai Conference. Iwould like to offer pranams (salutations) at the feet of our sweet and loving Lord, the indweller of my heart as well as yours. I would like to ask Him to use me as an instrument—that I may be a hollow flute with divine melody coming from it. A familiar bhajan(devotional song) says, “I am God. I am God. I am no different from God.” Do you believe it? What does it mean? So many times when we make mistakes, we go around with sad faces, harboring resentment, jealously, anger, or hatred. And as an excuse we say, “I am only human.” What does it mean to be human? We are human beings with human bodies, but our next step is divinity. That isn’t exactly true either because we are already divine. Swami says, “Yes, I am God. But so are you. The only difference is that I know I am God and you do not.” Having human bodies is a very special privilege. Swami has said that when righteousness declines, He comes back. Apparently, we have reached a very low ebb in our evolution. Thus, the Lord of the universe has descended to earth. Those of us here have done something special in the past, because we heard about the Avatar (Sai Baba) and decided we would do something about it. Many others heard of Him, but did not pay heed. What made us pay attention? My personal belief is that we truly have done something good in the past to be here today. And I hope that we will not lose sight of the fact that we are special. Swami is telling us that we have to become ideal human beings. To do this, we have to follow a dharma. We have gotten into a lot of trouble by behaving as less than human. Sometimes we act like animals. Anger and jealousy—and all the things that take away peace—are not human. They are animal qualities that can even become demonic. I’m not going to ask for a show of hands because I would be the first one to raise my hand and I hate to do that. We have all had moments when we acted like demons. In an interview Swami asked a young woman, “Where is your husband?” She told Swami she did not have a husband. He looked at her and said, “Yes, you do. You have many boyfriends. You are acting like an animal. Why are you acting like an animal? You are a human being.” Then He said, “I can’t believe it. Right here in front of Me, you are thinking about your last boyfriend.” I talked to her later and she admitted she had been and she did not know where the thought came from. But we know where the thoughts come from. Swami was teaching all of us a lesson. As He turned to me to say something, the young woman began to cry. Swami made her a ring and told her that He loved her, but that He had used her to show all of us how to be human beings. He has told us about the value of truth, righteousness, peace, love, and nonviolence. In 1993, when Swami talked with the boys at Kodaikanal, He told them about these values and how they were a part of the sheaths (koshas)—the layers that make us what we are. Human beings are not their bodies, He pointed out. Bodies are disease-ridden and impermanent. They come and go. Five layers make up the body. It is kept alive with food. In fact, the first layer is called the food sheath—the annamaya kosha. This sheath is connected with the value of right action, or dharma. Swami tells us it is our dharma to practice this value. This is our true nature as human beings. We are human beings for a short while in this lifetime. We come from God and we go back to God. We cannot get away from Him. He is always with us. Why do our minds wander from the path? I think it is all a game. Probably we all helped make the rules way back when we were one with Baba. Isn’t it funny that we get bodies, then we form attachments, and our senses work overtime? We think that the world is what it is all about. The one who dies with the most toys wins. We are taught that throughout our lifetime and die so unhappy. What miserable creatures we are! And we are all so afraid of dying. Even in our Sai family, rumors come up about what Swami says. Why do we get involved in rumors? We cannot waste time worrying about dying. We have to think about living—and living in a dharmicway. We experience peace when we live that way because jealousy, hatred, envy, and all the things that make us miserable go away with right action. The breath, or pranamaya kosha, and Swami’s love keeps our bodies going. We are walking love. Why can’t we experience that? Why can’t we turn on the switch, as we do for electricity, and find love? It permeates the entire world. God never leaves us alone. Love and God are synonymous. And both are what we are. When we sing together, we experience the unity of oneness. We cannot argue. We may be jealous of someone leading a bhajan when it sounds particularly good. But if we can just enjoy the moment and breathe together, the breath will show us that we are one. We’ve been given the manomaya kosha (mind), which is like a stumbling block in a sense. Swami says this koshais equated with the value of peace, but to attain peace is up to us. The mind is a special gift that can set us free when we see that God is all

The Wonderful Mother That I Have Mrs. Geeta Mohan Ram comes from a family that has been associated with Swami for the last four generations. Her great grandfather, Mr. Seshagiri Rao, came to Swami in 1943 and was the temple priest of Prasanthi Nilayam for many years. Her father, Dr. Padmanabh is a familiar figure in Swami’s ashram in Bangalore. Having come to Swami at a tender age, her life is full of exciting and illuminating experiences. Below are excerpts of a talk she delivered at a Sai Retreat on May 13, 2006, in Atlanta, USA. My pranams (salutations) at the Lotus Feet of our ever-present Swami and Sairam to all of you on this wonderful day—a holy day of Buddha Poornima, with Mother’s Day coming up tomorrow. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do my namasmarana [taking the Lord’s name] and place my respects at Sai—my Mother, who has been a part of my life since the day I have come into this world. To speak of Swami is a huge responsibility. [For] many subjects you can prepare, read books, and have references, but when we speak of Swami people look at us very differently. They wonder and say, “They have had the association of this Divine being—how has their life changed?” So when you speak of Swami, your life changes. When you enter a Sai Center and sit for bhajans [holy songs], study circles, your life changes—it should change, otherwise we would be very poor representatives of this wonderful Mother that we have! My multi-faceted beloved Swami For me Swami has been many things. I have seen many facets of Swami and I still discover more as the years go by. He has been my Mother—a very loving Mother—corrected me like all Mothers do with their daughters. He has been a strict Father pointing out my poor marks in several exams. He has been a strict teacher and has not forgiven me if I have made the same mistake twice—even after having been corrected. But He has also been a very good friend! These are all things that a Mother has to be with her children—you have to be a loving mother when your child is very young; you have to be a strict parent to inculcate discipline and devotion; you have to be a teacher by example—I am sure many parents will agree with me. And you have to be a friend with your child, too. Swami has been those many things to me. When the Lord becomes your guest… My earliest memories—and very sweet ones—of Swami are of when I was a child and He used to come and stay with us in Bangalore in my parents’ house. When Swami is with you; you know that everybody is very focused. When we have a guest in our house, the housewife is focused on the room, the bedroom, and the food—as she wants to make the stay a pleasant one for the guest. But imagine having Swami staying with you! You will have this wondrous feeling of when is He going to walk into the kitchen, and I remember my mother would constantly be cleaning the kitchen never knowing when Swami would walk into the kitchen! I remember my father, who never lifted the newspaper to put it away, would be constantly putting away the newspaper so that Swami wouldn’t find it on the sofa in our living room! I remember my brother cleaning his room exceptionally when Swami was around because he never knew when He would come in. And I remember hiding my story books behind Sathya Sai Speaks so Swami wouldn’t know what I was reading! This is my experience that whenever Swami would come, suddenly the look of all the bookshelves would change. I think as a child I read Enid Blyton; as a teenager I probably read Barbara Cartland and Mills and Boons—whatever the current craze was in school—but they would all go behind, and in front of them there would be a second row of Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, in the hope that Swami would think that I was reading them! You can’t trick the Lord! The thread that ran through my life is that whatever I did, Swami knew everything. He is Omnipresent and you could never really trick Him—even though for a while He pretended and played along. I remember once when He came into our room. He would actually eat in my room because we had separate food for Swami, and then the other devotees who came with Him were fed. He would walk into the room a little bit ahead of time while my parents and aunts were setting up the table. And then He would stand in front of the bookshelf and look at all the books. So your heart is pounding, and you hope that He would just look at the books in the front. Then He would look at the books and say, “Oh! Prema Vahini!” Then He would look and say, “Oh, is this the new one that has come out at the Sathya Sai bookstore now?” And He would very sweetly remove two books and say, “Oh! Barbara Cartland! Is that what you read?” and put the Sathya Sai Speaks back right where it was! The ecstasy and agony of experiencing ‘that omnipresence’! So the thread of Omnipresence ran through my life. Sometimes as a child I would wish that ‘that Omnipresence’ was not reminding me all the time that He was with me because I wanted to be like any other child and read what I wanted to read and do what I wanted to do! But as I grew older, I remember what a wonderful sense of security it gave me—because wherever I went, I knew that Swami was with me! It was very easy for me to say, “No” when my other friends said “Yes” to things—because I knew that when I went back on the weekend, Swami would be asking me where I went last Wednesday