Complete Devotion

The Lord is a Mountain of Love. He is an Ocean of of Mercy without a limiting shore. Devotion is the easiest way to win His Grace and also to realize that He pervades everything; in fact, is everything. The total surrender leaving everything to His Will, is the highest form of devotion. When the devotion is just emerging as a sapling, a fence is needed to protect the tender plant, and that fence is the “Eternal Religion” and its rules, regulations and restrictions, directions and commands. In spiritual practice, one should keep the name as constant as breathing. The Devotion and the attitude of surrender that is  its final fruits will give devotee the great courage to meet any emergency; such courage is called Renunciation. Such courage comes out of the Grace of the Lord; it needs generations of learning, struggle and spiritual practice.

Complete Devotion

The Lord is a Mountain of Love. He is an Ocean of of Mercy without a limiting shore. Devotion is the easiest way to win His Grace and also to realize that He pervades everything; in fact, is everything. The total surrender leaving everything to His Will, is the highest form of devotion. When the devotion is just emerging as a sapling, a fence is needed to protect the tender plant, and that fence is the “Eternal Religion” and its rules, regulations and restrictions, directions and commands. In spiritual practice, one should keep the name as constant as breathing. The Devotion and the attitude of surrender that is its final fruits will give devotee the great courage to meet any emergency; such courage is called Renunciation. Such courage comes out of the Grace of the Lord; it needs generations of learning and struggle.

Complete Devotion

The Lord is a Mountain of Love. He is an Ocean of of Mercy without a limiting shore. Devotion is the easiest way to win His Grace and also to realize that He pervades everything; in fact, is everything. The total surrender leaving everything to His Will, is the highest form of devotion. When the devotion is just emerging as a sapling, a fence is needed to protect the tender plant, and that fence is the “Eternal Religion” and its rules, regulations and restrictions, directions and commands. In spiritual practice, one should keep the name as constant as breathing. The Devotion and the attitude of surrender that is its final fruits will give devotee the great courage to meet any emergency; such courage is called Renunciation. Such courage comes out of the Grace of the Lord; it needs generations of learning, struggle and spiritual practice.

Do not give up Spiritual Practice

        Sai is beloved to all people and so any name which gives the joy, one can take up. Tastes differ according to temperament and the character one has earned by generations of activity as a living being in this world. Saadhana (Spiritual Practice) is most required to control the mind and the desires after which it runs. If one find that he/ she is not able to succeed, do not give up the Saadhana but do it more vigorously, for it is the subject in which one did  not get passing marks that requires special study. Saadhana means inner cleanliness as well as external cleanliness. One neither feel refreshed if wear unwashed clothes after the bath nor feel refreshed if wear washed clothes skipping the bath. Both are needed (the external as well as internal).

        One wish leads to another; one bond brings about ten others. It is in the very nature of human desire; for, the joy one gets through its satisfaction is imperfact, limited and temporary with grief.

        You sow bitter seeds and pray for a harvest of sweetness. You wail over the soil, the plant, the rain. What can they do? The seeds themselves are diseased, defactive.

Keep faith in the Lord

Keep the faith in the Lord undiminished. The greatest obstacle on the path of surrender is ahamkaara (egoism) and mamakaara (mineness or possessiveness). It is something that has been inhering to our personality since ages, sending its tentacles deeper and deeper with the experience of every succeeding life. It can be removed only by the twin detergents of discrimination and renunciation. Bhakti is the water to wash away this dirt of ages and the soap of Japam, Dhyanam and Yoga (repetition of God’s name, meditation and communion) will help to remove it quicker and more effectively. The slow and the steady will surely win this race; walking is the safest method of travel though it may be condemned as slow. Quicker means of travel mean disaster; the quicker the means, the greater the risk of disaster. You should eat only as much as you feel hunger, for more will cause disorder. So proceed step by step in Saadhana (spiritual effort); making sure of one step before you take another. Do not slide back two paces when you go one pace forward. But even the first step will be unsteady, if you have no faith. So cultivate faith.

Bhakti (Devotion)

Bhakti (devotion) is the easiest way to win God’s grace and also to realize that He pervades everything; in fact, is everything! Sharanaagathi (total surrender), leaving everything to His Will, is the highest form of Bhakti (devotion). When the Bhakti is just emerging as a sapling, a fence is needed to protect the tender plant; that fence is Sanaathana Dharma (Eternal Religion) and its rules, regulations and restrictions, directions and commands. Bhakti and Shraddha (devotion and faith) are the two oars with which one can take the boat across the sea of sansaara. Bhakti and the attitude of surrender that is its final fruits will give one the great courage to meet any emergency; such courage is what is called Renunciation.

Need for silence ?

The tongue is liable to four big errors; uttering falsehood, scandalising, finding fault with others and excessive articulation. These have to be avoided if there has to be shaanthi (peace) for the individual as well as for society. The bond of brotherhood will be tightened if people speak less and sweet. That is why silence was prescribed as a vow for saadhakas by the Shaasthras. This discipline is valuable for all saadhakas (spiritual aspirants) at various stages of the road.

Why silence ?

The tongue is liable to four big errors; uttering falsehood, scandalising, finding fault with others and excessive articulation. These have to be avoided if there has to be shaanthi for the individual as well as for society. The bond of brotherhood will be tightened if people speak less and sweet. That is why silence was prescribed as a vow for saadhakas by the Shaasthras. This discipline is valuable for all saadhakas (spiritual aspirants) at various stages of the road.

True education

The educated man must be able to distinguish between the momentary and the momentous, the lasting and the effervescent. He must not run after glitter and glamour but he must seek instead the good and golden. He must know how to keep the body in good trim, the senses under strict control, the mind well within check, the intellect sharp and clear, unhampered by prejudices and hatred, and the feelings untouched by egoism. He must know the Aathma too, for that is his very care; that is the efflugence which illumines his inner and outer selves. This knowledge will ensure joy and peace and courage for him throughout life. Whoever assigns his wealth, strength, intellect and devotion towards the promotion of humankind is worthy of reverence. They are those who are born for a noble purpose. They observe the holy vow of service, unsullied by thoughts of self. This ideal of service and the urge to practice it forms the very heart of education. This is Pure Love in its chief manifestation. God loves those individuals who undertake activities for the benefit of other people, as His dear children. These are ideal brothers and sisters for their countrymen..

Real knowledge

The educated man must be able to distinguish between the momentary and the momentous, the lasting and the effervescent. He must not run after glitter and glamour but he must seek instead the good and golden. He must know how to keep the body in good trim, the senses under strict control, the mind well within check, the intellect sharp and clear, unhampered by prejudices and hatred, and the feelings untouched by egoism. He must know the Aathma too, for that is his very care; that is the efflugence which illumines his inner and outer selves. This knowledge will ensure joy and peace and courage for him throughout life.

The suffering

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfill them and they fail. They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief. If you look upon nature and all created objects with the insight derived from the inner vision, then attachment will slide away, though effort will remain; you will also see everything much clearer and with a glow suffused with Divinity and splendor. Close these eyes and open those inner eyes and what a grand picture of essential Unity you get! Attachment to nature has limits, but the attachment to the Lord that you develop when the inner eye opens has no limit. Enjoy that Reality, not this false picture.

The Mind

It is the mind which makes or mars man. If it is immersed in things of the world, it leads to bondage; if it treats the world as but temporary, then by that vairaagya (detachment) it becomes free and light. Train the mind not to feel attached to things that change for better or for worse. Do not hold before it the tinsels of worldly fame and riches; attract it towards lasting joys derived from springs inside you. That will bring big rewards. The mind itself will then become the Guru, for it leads you on and on, once it has tasted the sweets of Shravana, Manana and Nidhidhyaasana (listening, recapitulating and repeated steady meditation). It is the mind that fills the image made by the potter with the Divinity which the devotee sees in it; it is the mind which fills the shrine-room with the fragrance of holiness.

The Spiritual effort (Practice)

Saadhana (spiritual effort) or practice is the essential thing for seeker of truth; for no age is too early for this. Just as one tend the body with food and drink at regular intervals, he must also tend to the needs of the inner Aathmic body by regular japam and dhyanam and the cultivation of virtues. Sath-sanga, Sath-pravarthana and Sath-chintana (holy company, good attitude and sacred thoughts ) are all essential for the growth and the health of the inner personality. The body is the mansion of the Lord of the world . In so far as you are particular about coffee or tea at regular intervals, be also particular about dhyanam (Meditation) and japam at fixed times for the health and liveliness of the spirit.